Doskophoto: Why Not Minot? The Magic City

Why Not Minot?

The Magic City – North Dakota

You might remember James Francis from my Wyoming travel story in 2021. He recently relocated to an almost unknown spot on the map for angling that should absolutely get more recognition. The fish he posted a few days before I headed in his direction was an almost 22- inch largemouth. This, along with the numbers that he’s been putting up throughout the summer sent rushes of dopamine throughout my body and is why I had to get while the getting’s good in North Dakota.

Minot is a railroad town of about 48,000 people and is known as the Magic City because in the 1800’s a tent town sprung up there overnight and immediately grew by 5,000 people in just 5 months. Minot is also known for its large Scandinavian ancestry with about 40% of the population being of the descent. It’s also a great hub for some amazing fishing. James guided the trip, taking me to Hiddenwood Lake, Nelson Lake, Chain of Lakes, and both sides of the dam at Lake Darling. We were probably on the water for a total of 3 days total and caught over 200 fish. Some 20+ inch largemouth, 20 + inch smallmouth and a few pike over 30 inches. All of these locations were no more than an hour and half drive from the Magic City.

Getting off the puddle jumper from Denver at the Minot International Airport, I could feel the pace of life change from the hustle and bustle at DIA and immediately slow down. I quickly fell into a calm state of exploration mode. The Lyft took a while to grab me and take me to my preferred method of travel, the U-Haul cargo van. From there, I gathered my weekly snacks and a few lures recommended by James and headed to the Francis residence to meet the family and head out for the evening bite at Hiddenwood Lake with the hopes of catching smallies and pike.

The geographical region is known as the Northern Mixed Prairie or Drift Prairie. It seems to be a never-ending set of golden rolling hills freshly cut from harvest with patches of green still holding on for the inevitable. This time of year when the light is just right, they light up with a golden glow and mesmerizing, majestic and homely American warmth to it. Around every other corner you’ll find freshly bailed hay and windmills elegantly turning in the breeze as far as the eye can see.

Gear and Bait – Unfortunately, Minot doesn’t have an independently owned baits shop. However, Scheels has everything you could ever need. Pick up a whopper plopper, jigs, and some pumpkin-colored rage craws.

Ironhorse Kitchen – Great hot wings

Hiddenwood Lake

Hiddenwood is a National Wildlife Refuge located less than an hour’s drive southwest of Minot. We get out at the only boat ramp on this 128-acre lake The temperature was perfect, there was no wind, and the sun was shining. It was the perfect start to my ND trip. Brody Kindsvogel had already been on the water and paddled our way giving us the heads up that it’s been a tough bite for him so far. Going for smallmouth and pike, mostly using the whopper ploppers we started off with very little interest from any fish. As the sun started to fade James and Brody ended up hooking into a few smallies, with one warranting a hog trough and weight measurement coming in at 16.75 inches and pushing 3 pounds. It just wasn’t the numbers that any of us expected from such a great fishery. We fished until just after sunset and headed home for an early turn-in and an early morning with the hopes of laying into them at Nelson Lake.

Nelson Lake

With the state record largemouth coming out of Nelson at 8 lbs 8 oz, it’s possibly the best largemouth fishery in the state. This 2 stack powerplant Lake is 1.5 hours from Minot and did not disappoint. We got there at sunrise and first headed up Square Butte Creek. It’s a long, winding creek channel that feeds the lake with walls of cattails. That meanders through a public golf course. After catching a few along the edges of the cattails with jigs, the whopper plopper and a 10 inch Johnny Rat (yes, a $150 rat imitation), we decided to head out to a rock pile that James knew about toward the center of the lake. That was about the time that the wind picked up. This made it hard to hold our position so we would cast, catch and then paddle back to ours positions to do it all over again. We were throwing ¾ oz jigs with rage craw trailers and catching them on every 3rd or 4th cast bumping the jig along the bottom. It seemed that the larger the craw trailer was, the bigger the bass we’d catch. James and I did this for close to 2 hours while Brody fished the edges, catching a few decent fish. However, when he decided to join us on the rock pile, he really started laying into them as well. We ended up catching 30-40 largmouth with 4 of them being 20 or more inches. I’m happy to say that I got “big bass” for the day at 20.5 inches.

James had a family event that evening so we headed back to Minot somewhat early, and I was able to explore the town a bit and have myself a fine dining experience.

Culture – Check out the Scandinavian Heritage Organization and take a walk around the park to see some great architecture and art.

Ebeneezer’s – A local Irish spot that James recommended I check out wasn’t at all unfamiliar to me and taste for the good ol’ American dive bar. The waitress recommended that I try the “FAT FROG” a large hoagie bun stuffed with chicken strips, bacon, Irish fries, mozzarella sticks, American and Swiss cheese served with a side of benees’ sauce and Irish fries. I’m not mad

Chain of Lakes – a little over an hour

The Chain of Lakes is part of the McClusky Canal and was created by the Bureau of Land Reclamation to provide irrigation and flood control. It runs 76.3 miles from Lake Audubon up to Lone Tree Wildlife Management Area and includes a series of lakes connected by a canal system feeding one lake into the other. Our main targets for the day are smallmouth and pike.

We started the morning off at Heckers Lake where we had to portage our kayaks down the side of the embankment where the canal opens up into the lake. Fishing the opening first, then halfway down one of the banks without any luck and the wind howling, we quickly headed to the canal for protection. We went down the canal to the next opening only catching a few dinks along the way before deciding to take our rods down the road to a section of the canal that has been closed off to motorboats. Portaging down the steep, rocky embankment wasn’t easy but being seasoned portagers, we made it look easy. We launched and started down the canal. I don’t remember catching anything for the first mile, then we got to the only change in structure along the stretch. It was two concrete drainage valves set up across from each other on the canal. Brody hit the first one with a jig and pulled a 19.25-inch smallie out of it. He then paddled across to the second one and pulled another 19+ out of that one. From there to about 2 miles forward, it was smallmouth after smallmouth catching them mostly on the whopper plopper and with a good chunk of them in the 17-19 inch range. At one point Brodie had a bass on and a follower. He quickly grabbed a second rod and tossed it out there catching both basses on two different rods at the same time. This is something that I’ve never seen before but Brody handled it like a champ landing both fish. We ended up going about 4 miles down then turned around to hit the same stretch all over again. At one point James was like “cast over there” pointing towards a set of reeds and at that point, I was just tired of throwing and retrieving the plopper all day and ended up plopper trolling back to the launch. With my rod tip about 2 feet off the bank and the plopper 5-10 feet behind the boat, I ended up catching another 7 or 8 bass in that 2-mile stretch. While the views from inside a canal aren’t spectacular the fishing sure was. Altogether we probably caught 130 fish, mostly smallies, a few pike and one baby walleye and James ending up with big fish for the day at 20.25-inches.

Kroll’s Diner - On the way back to Minot we stopped at Kroll’s Diner, a German restaurant on the edge of town. Minot is known for it’s German food and Brody recommended that I try the fleischkuechle, ground beef wrapped inside a pastry and deep fried. That along with a side of mashed potatoes and a milkshake really hit the spot.

Lake Darling/ Souris River/ Beaver Lodge Canoe Trail

Back at it again the next morning, James and I headed out to hit the early bite at the Lake Darling Dam which is less than 30 minutes from Minot. We fished the whole dam and the only thing that was caught was 1-inch crawfish on a 4inch jerk bait by James. We packed it up and headed to the other side of the dam on the Souris River. This is where the Beaver Lodge Canoe Trail starts. River fishing is my favorite and this spot didn’t disappoint. Our goals for the trip were to catch largemouth (check), smallmouth (check) and pike (here we go). This is a spot that James had never been to but his instincts were spot on. As soon as we got through the series of grass-matted ponds and into the main river channel, we started catching pike. One after another fishing downstream about a mile we found a bend in the river a stack of smallies and caught about 5 there before heading back for more pike. I was throwing a chartreuse spinner bait and he, a crankbait. We fished until about 2:30 catching close to 20 pike and 5 smallmouth. The smallies weren’t anything to brag about but the pike had some length to them, the largest being somewhere around 32-34 inches.

From there we parted ways, and I headed toward Theodore Roosevelt National Park in search of the once-endangered American bison

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

2.5 hours from Lake Darling Dam

I had another 2 days in North Dakota and needed something fun to do. So while on the water I started asking about the prettiest part of ND, wildlife (bison particularly), and funky towns. James and Brody pointed me towards Medora, ND where Roosevelt National Park is located and only a 2.5-hour drive from Minot. This was an easy decision because Theodore Roosevelt is my favorite president. He created the National Parks system and his dedication to conservation and to the public land that we all use in the fishing and hunting community wouldn’t have happened without him and I wouldn’t have the career that I have today. It seemed very fitting that I pay my respects by checking out his namesake park and the area that had such an impact on him as a young man. The park is located in the Little Missouri River valley on the western side of North Dakota. While it is considered part of the Badlands, it is mostly a prairie filled with flat grassy areas and very few trees and some amazing geological features. Cruising through the park, you can find most of your normal park animals like deer and squirrel. However, taking a long drive through the park will almost guarantee that you find some amazing wildlife like wild horses and bison.