Here’s a fishing opener story for the ages

Talk about it

The luster of Minnesota’s fishing opener wore off for young Brenna McQuiston, 3 1/2, of Silver Bay about 10:45 in the morning Saturday.

“Her Hershey’s Kisses ran out, and she had already eaten her sandwich for lunch,” said her mom, Kelly McQuiston. “She said, ‘Mom, I’m out of food.’”

The two were fishing from shore on Sonju Lake near Finland, where Kelly works as assistant area fisheries supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

So, the two headed for home. Kelly’s husband, Casey McQuiston, and his dad, Larry McQuiston, soon returned from walleye fishing. They, too, were skunked. The family decided to go down to nearby Lax Lake and try for walleyes or northern pike.

“We got out there. We’re in the boat now,” Kelly said. “She looks in my tackle box and is upset because we don’t have any purple jigs. I said. ‘I have pink or orange or yellow.’ I didn’t have anything with glitter on it.”

Brenna settled for a pink, played with a night crawler for about five minutes, then put it on her jig and tossed it in the lake. In about 10 minutes, Kelly noticed that Brenna’s rod tip was twitching.

“I said, ‘Honey, you have a fish on. Start reeling,’” her mom said. “She starts reeling and said, ‘Mom, it’s stuck.’”

“I said, ‘It’s not stuck,’” Kelly said. “I start reeling with her. I think it’s probably a little northern.”

No, it was not a little northern. It was a 28-inch walleye.

Brenna held the rod and reel, and with Kelly helping her reel, they landed that big walleye. They took a photo and released it.

After a few minutes, Brenna had a question for her mom and dad and grandpa.

“Where’s your guys’ fish?”

Tags: two harbors, silver bay, outdoors, fishingfishing