BOW Training and Fishing Launch

Sunset on Lake Mille Lacs

Beautiful evening

Getting ready to fish

One of six fish caught

Peaceful evening on the lake

This weekend was the DNR's Becoming an Outdoors Women instructor training day in Isle, MN. The day was spent discussing how to write curriculum and the psychology of how women learn and interact as compared with how men learn and interact. In a nutshell, women and men act differently in mixed groups than they do in a group of just men or just women. This interaction plays a role in the learning of individuals in each group. Generally women learn better when in a group of all women. There is less competition and more teamwork and emotional support, which supports the way women are typically hardwired.

We discovered that, although there are some very basic differences in how each sex is "hardwired" and how each will learn best and in what setting, there has been an evolution in the past few decades that has closed the gap a bit. Overall, its very important to deal with each person as an individual and tailor-make their experience based on their personality, ability and experience.

This day of training was followed by a Lake Mille Lacs fishing launch to fish for Walleye, the Minnesota state fish. We couldn't have asked for a better day. The temps were a bit warm when the launch began but quickly cooled off once on the lake. Unfortunately, the May Flies hatched a few days prior so most of the Walleye were sitting on the bottom of the lake with their stomachs full, completely ignoring the tasty leeches on our lines. The guide told us that the week before, he had launches with over 200 fish caught and had slowly seen them drop off since this hatch to the all time low of 6 fish caught, which was on our launch.

Since the journey is just as important as the destination, our bad fishing luck didn't seem to dampen the mood on the boat. We enjoyed each other's company, the call of loons and the wonderful sunset.