Fishing Minnesota inks some press

[buzzsaw]

I just want to let everybody here on this site know that I went down to Avoca, Mn this Saturday with a friend (Brian)and we were treated to a Pheasant hunt by fellow FMer Boilerguy (Eric) and we were faced with a stiff steady 20 plus MPH wind and a bunch of jumpy Pheasants... but in the end Brian got a GW Teal in one of Erics spots and our backs and legs got a good, if not great workout... I think my family first Golden Retriever slept most of the day Sunday as well! I just wanted to say thanks and we'll be down again Eric.

Here is an article from this past weekend.

Pheasants and a Web site bring hunters to the region

Justine Wettschreck

Worthington Daily Globe - 10/23/2006

SLAYTON — Between pheasant hunters and construction workers, Gordy Eibensteiner doesn’t have any trouble keeping the rooms of his hotel in Slayton booked all fall and winter long.

People start calling for reservations at the Hill Top Inn Motel as early as February for the pheasant season opener in October, and Eibensteiner, owner of the motel, said he gets quite a few repeat customers every year. And even with a 30 unit operation, he said he turned away at least 30 hunters for the opener.

“This past week with MEA, the fathers and sons were coming in already on Thursday night. I’ve been really busy here,” Eibensteiner said. “I had to chase the construction guys out, so I could get the pheasant hunters in.”

Eibensteiner said he had four people helping Sunday morning to get the motel turned over for the next guests. During the week, he has employees from three or four construction companies staying in the hotel, all of whom are working on the wind towers south of Chandler.

The Hill Top Inn Motel is one of the few motels that can offer a solution to one of the problems hunters face — what to do with their four-legged hunting companions. For a $5 per day fee, hunters are allowed to bring their dogs into the motel, as long as they are leashed or kenneled.

“I don’t allow dogs to be in the rooms unattended,” Eibensteiner explained. “There is always a few that will abuse it — they bring in long haired, shaggy dogs, which requires a lot of clean up.”

The motel isn’t the only business in the area that is affected by the hunters.

“The gas stations, eating places, night clubs, Subway, Pizza Ranch…they all see the hunters,” Eibensteiner said. “It’s good for this area.”

Eibensteiner said the hunters are doing very well but are waiting for farmers to get more corn out also.

“There was a guy this morning that went out for two hours and got his limit,” he said. “He really knows the area.”

Not all of the hunters who come into Murray County to hunt knew the area as well, but, thanks to the Internet, they can hook up with local hunters.

Mike Lentz of Lakeville and Brian Rozeveld of Farmington hunted in rural Avoca and Slayton on Saturday after meeting a fellow hunter from the area on a Web site forum. A conversation between Buzzsaw and Boilerguy turned into an invitation to try pheasant hunting in southwest Minnesota.

The site www.fishingminnesota.com is becoming increasingly popular, and the forum subjects range from fishing and hunting to bird watching and photography. Recipes, politics and movies show up regularly.

Lentz and Rozeveld met several years ago in a forum on the site discussing the merits of a lake near Lentz’s home.

“I wanted to check out the lake (for fishing), so I asked him by post what he knew about it,” Rozeveld said.

“I told him if he ever needed a place to park, I’m right across from the lake,” Lentz added.

The two have fished and hunted together many times since their first meeting.

Although there is a stigma about meeting people from the Internet in person, neither of the hunters believes that applies to fishingminnesota.com.

“You get to know people on the site and meet other people who know those people,” Lentz said Saturday as the two sat in a Murray County establishment eating lunch.

According to the two hunters and others who frequent the site, people they have met in person have always been exactly who they said they were online — people who have a passion for outdoor sports and like to discuss their hobbies with others.

“Everyone has the same interests,” Rozeveld said. “They share information, give advice. It is a very family-oriented Web site.”

Also pointed out was the difficulty of going into new hunting ground and not knowing the area. Rather than paying the prices of a guide or wandering around blindly, outdoorsmen and women can meet new people who are already familiar with an area — who know the hot spots and land owners.

And they do enjoy getting out and meeting the people they have been conversing with online.

“My wife calls them my Internet boyfriends,” Lentz joked

[tealitup]

Thats it boys!! Keep it up. Course now everyone will come to our little get away on the Internet.

Thanks fishingminnesota!!

[Guest]

Its posts like this that makes the late night, working behind the scenes all the worth while

[Gissert]

Cool story, and one that probably has many, many similar chapters across the upper midwest.

I have met some great folks, primarily through FM, and the old Up North Shanty gang.

[Jim Almquist]

Good one Buzz with the ink but are you going to show us some photos of this hunt.