Across Minnesota, an easygoing fishing opener yields smiles and plenty of bites startribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from startribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
What you need to know about the 2023 Minnesota fishing opener twincities.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from twincities.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
During an in-state trip we relived parts of our past and I came away with the feeling that some things change over 50 years and some things don't. We'll just have to live with the memories.
Urbank bait company in southern Otter Tail County celebrating 75 years of supplying bait for fishing. 6:06 am, May 13, 2021 ×
Urbank Bait employees load tanks on a semi-truck bed to carry minnows to Brainerd in time for the opening of the 2021 Minnesota walleye and northern pike fishing season. From left, Tom Lorine, owner Marshall Koep and Matt Hanson. (Karen Tolkkinen / Echo Press)
During the Great Depression, a kid began digging and trapping bait and selling it next to Block Lake in Otter Tail County, not far from Urbank.
That kid, Paul Koep, grew up, and in 1946, founded Urbank Bait, a business that supplies anglers with bait throughout Minnesota as well as in about a dozen states.