CLEMENTSON, Minn. _ It's a gray, dreary morning, and mist spits through the lingering fog, but that doesn't keep anglers by the hundreds from converging on the Rainy River on this Friday in early April.
Vehicle-boat trailer rigs line both sides of the road for several hundred yards from the Vidas Access boat ramp south nearly to Minnesota Highway 11 on the border of Koochiching and Lake of the Woods counties.
The Rainy River is open, and anglers from across the region are getting their first taste of fishing in a boat after a long winter. Occasional remnants of ice float downstream through the fleet of boats, and snow lingers on both the U.S. and Canadian shorelines of the border river.
As they are many days throughout the spring walleye season, Hannah Mishler and Eric Benjamin are patrolling the river, making the rounds in a 19-foot Alumacraft powered by a 200-horse Honda outboard. Wishing they were fishing, perhaps, but more importantly, making sure anglers play by the rules. Conservation officers for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Mishler and Benjamin say they also welcome the return to open water after a long winter, even if they're not wetting lines.
"It's a nice change of pace," Benjamin said. "It's like all of our seasons. You look forward to them, but by the time they're done, you're tired of them.
"That's kind of the beauty of the job."
Mishler, of Kelliher, Minn., works the Baudette East station, an area that includes Upper Red Lake and parts of Lake of the Woods and Rainy River. Benjamin, of Roosevelt, Minn., has the Warroad North area, which includes parts of Lake of the Woods and Beltrami Island State Forest.
Both have been in their work areas for the past five years and graduated from the same conservation officer academy. Originally from the Ely, Minn., area, Mishler graduated from St. Cloud State University with a criminal justice degree before entering the academy. Benjamin, a Farmington, Minn., native, worked as a deputy in Anoka County before becoming a conservation officer.
A love for being outside drew them to the field, they say.
"I grew up literally in the middle of nowhere _ no running water, no electricity," Mishler said. "I always had a passion for wanting to protect the resources just because I grew up using them so much."
The variety also is part of the attraction, Benjamin says; no two days are the same.
"You're outdoors, you're kind of free to do what you need to do, and every day is something new," he said.
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