Edgewood Grand Forks residents experience ice fishing in comfort during Larimore Dam excursion

Feb. 10—LARIMORE DAM RECREATION AREA, N.D. — Mike Dorsher did his share of open water fishing over the years, but his job as administrative specialist for the city of Grand Forks' Streets and Sanitation Department didn't give him much time for ice fishing.

If there was a snowstorm and the streets needed clearing, Dorsher had to be on the job.

But oh, Dorsher says, did he love summer fishing. He bought a place up at the Northwest Angle in the early '90s and fished every chance he got until health reasons forced him to give it up about 14 years ago.

"We caught some nice fish up there," Dorsher, 77, said.

Dorsher's property was next to Grumpy's, a now-defunct Northwest Angle establishment, and some of his best times on the water were fishing with Bob Nunn, who was a partner in Northwest Angle Resort and a part-time Lake of the Woods County deputy.

"He'd come and ask me if I wanted to go fishing, and I'd say 'Yeah, I'll pay for gas,' and then we'd go into Canada," Dorsher said. "We'd go to all those different islands around there and catch all kinds of fish.

"Oh, it was just beautiful — and he knew the place so well — so it was a lot of fun. I miss it terribly, but it's one of those things I can't do anymore. I had a lot of good times up there."

Now living at Edgewood Grand Forks, Dorsher had the opportunity to renew his acquaintance with fishing during an early February ice fishing excursion for three residents of the assisted living facility to Larimore Dam. The original plan was to take six residents ice fishing in two shifts in the deluxe, heated comfort of a wheeled fish house set up on the ice, but a bug making the rounds in the memory care unit forced organizers to change the plan, said Amber Hahn, Edgewood's life enrichment director.

Instead, three residents went ice fishing and made a day of it.

Upon learning of the ice fishing excursion, Dorsher says he jumped at the opportunity. A conflict prevented him from joining Edgewood residents on a September outing to Ryan Pond in Grand Forks, but he wasn't going to miss this one.

"I enjoyed fishing," he said.

The line for this senior ice fishing excursion was cast by Andrea Charlebois. A physical education instructor at Grand Forks Central High School and an avid hunter and angler, Charlebois is a volunteer with Time on the Water and Minnesota coordinator for Her Wilderness. Time on the Water organizes fishing trips on the Ontario side of Lake of the Woods for military, first responders and health care professionals. Her Wilderness provides outdoor adventure and travel experiences for women in 38 states. As Minnesota coordinator, Charlebois is one of 22 coordinators across the country who coordinate and plan outdoors adventures.

She's also longtime friends with Hahn, Edgewood's life enrichment director, and Jodi Dodson, assistant enrichment director.

"I was just trying to help them in their organization just because I have a lot of outdoor connections," said Charlebois, who also taught an Outdoors Pursuits course for four summers at UND and recently hosted a beer-tasting session of Bemidji Brewing Co. products for Edgewood residents. "Amber just thought, 'Well, we took them fall fishing so let's see if we can go ice fishing.' With my connections in the outdoor world I'm like, 'Yeah, I feel like we can find somebody,' and you just have to ask, basically.

"Ask and it will happen."

Charlebois did just that, posting a query on a social media Minnesota ice fishing forum asking if anyone out there had a wheelhouse they could provide for a seniors' ice fishing outing.

It wasn't long before she got a reply from Sean Hary of Zimmerman, Minn., who has donated use of his wheelhouse in the past as a volunteer for Hometown Heroes Outdoors, another organization that provides outdoors opportunities for active military, veterans and first responders.

Hary made the five-hour drive, wheelhouse in tow, from Zimmerman to Larimore Dam to provide Edgewood residents with the opportunity to go ice fishing.

It was an easy sell, he says.

"Old people tell the best stories — great stories — and we've had some really good stories already," Hary said. "And so, to me, just being here and listening to the stories is worth five hours of driving."

There was plenty of time for storytelling on this early February excursion. Fish occasionally showed up on the electronics that the organizers provided, but they weren't much interested in biting. Hary, who had spent the night on the ice in his wheelhouse, said a few crappies bit the previous evening, and he landed a crappie before the Edgewood group arrived that would have been a "keeper."

Now, though, the fish were playing hard to get.

"I haven't got anything yet," said Yvonne Kaul, an Edgewood resident. "I'm trying, but I think the minnow is dead. I think I killed it."

What about the fancy depth finder she was watching, complete with full-color screen?

"I have no idea what it does," she said.

Still, the fishing accommodations were much more comfortable than her previous ice fishing experience, Kaul said.

"My uncle took me ice fishing once, but I was like 7 years old," she said. That was "in Canada up there somewhere," she recalls.

"I had more fun playing with the rabbits," she said. "They were running all over. I can't say they were tame, but there were a lot of them there."

Kaul says her favorite fish to catch is trout, "but I don't think they have any here."

At the front of the fish house, Delores Suess was holding court on a couch in front of the fireplace with Hahn and Dodson. A minor celebrity in Edgewood fishing circles, Suess, 93, was pictured in the Herald in December with a rainbow trout she caught during the September excursion to Ryan Pond.

Suess, who got talked into joining the ice fishing outing as a last-minute fill-in, says she never expected to be fishing in such fancy accommodations.

"I never saw the inside of my son's fish house, but I know it couldn't have been anything like this," she said. "He said, 'Your feet will be on ice, so make sure your feet are warm more than anything else.'

"I said, 'I don't even have snow boots with me.' I put on two pairs of socks, and brought another pair along, just in case."

She definitely didn't need them.

"Wait until I get home, I'll tell him" what a nice fish house is like, compared to the shack he had, Suess said.

That brought a laugh from her fishing partners.

Despite Suess' pleading — "I'd like to catch one before we go home, somebody catch one," she urged — there'd be no fish on the ice for the Edgewood residents on this day.

Instead, they were treated to fish baskets for supper at Culver's, Hahn said.

Still, any day enjoying the outdoors — especially in the comfort of a deluxe fish house — is a pretty darn good day. Hopefully, Hahn says, the excursion will pave the way for future ice fishing outings for the residents in years to come.

The deluxe accommodations, complete with comfy couches and a fireplace, definitely will make it an easier sell, she says. Through the efforts of Charlebois and Hary, this February day had been made a little bit brighter than it otherwise might have been.

The fish might not have cooperated, but the fish stories and good times were in abundance.

"It was such a nice, open gathering," Dorsher, the Edgewood resident and avid fisherman, said a couple of days later. "I've been on Cloud 9 since we got back."