Mercury in Fish

July and August are the most pleasant months to fish on the Upper Mississippi. They also are the months I tend not to bring home any fish.  I know that it is partly my imagination, but I don’t think the fish taste as good in the middle of the summer. The water is warm...

Uncle Bill

My Uncle Bill used to be long-haul truck driver. In every American city I’ve ever lived – San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis, Ames, Iowa, it didn’t matter where – I got phone calls from Bill when he was on the road. “Steve, this is your Uncle Bill. I’m at...

Renting a Boat

As I mentioned two blogs ago, our annual group of four fishermen to Lake of the Woods had expanded to seven. As a result, we needed a third boat before we motored off for our weeklong backcountry fishing trip.  Jack dropped Tom and me off at Paradise Cove, a small...

Fish That Get Away

“Get a picture! Get a picture!” Ken yelled as he played the big fish and Clint reached out over the water to net it. I had neither a phone nor a camera, so I scrambled around the boat’s steering column looking for either Ken’s or Clint’s camera.  The fish rose to the...

Back to Deadbroke

Two years ago I wrote an essay titled “Goodbye Deadbroke.” It was written as a farewell to one of the best backcountry sites I’ve ever known.  Now that I think about it, it might be the only campsite anywhere that I’ve ever intentionally returned to. The site is a...

La Llorona

My previous blog was about age and stupidity.  This blog is just about stupidity. With the Mississippi River so high, I haven’t been paddling at all this spring. Growing impatient, my friend Buzz and I put in at Black Deer to at least get ourselves on the water. ...
Steven Simpson