Jeff Moriarty is a Minnesota Chancetaker
After graduating from the University of Minnesota with electrical engineering degrees, Jeff and two co-founders, Jake Johnson and George Kellerman, started their careers as electrical engineers but had a much different dream.
After four years of home brewing in their basements, the three opened Tin Whiskers Brewing Company in St. Paul.
Without having ever lost their roots in electrical engineering, Jeff, Jake and George have joined the craft beer movement in Minnesota. You can see all their “nerdiness” showcased in the names of brews, design of the machinery and even down to their serving trays.
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Rainy River Sturgeon Fishing - “Crawlers and Growlers” Episode 2
“Crawlers and Growers” Part II
Day two started in a barley haze at 10am in Baudette, MN. I’ll still put blame on the variety of brews and not the quantity as there wasn’t really that much beer drank, that I remember, two weeks later. Fishing at night and into the early morning puts me in a haze no matter what, the second night becomes much easier, however, as the body adjusts to nocturnal mode. Once again, armed with large Shimano Twin Powers and tuna capable rods, we were still on the proving grounds of how fast one of these sturgeon could be reeled to boat side. While most anglers work on embellishing a forty-five minute fight to and hour and a half, we were on the opposite end of that schematic, calling twenty-five second fights, sixteen seconds. Having the equipment to be able to pull that hard on a fish and experiencing the opposing forces was quite impressive, as impressive was the sturgeon, remaining strong willed these dinosaurs refused to roll over when overpowered making for big, green boat side battles. The longest fight of the trip was a pectoral hookup with a 58” fish. Blake had just exchanged the ass kicking Black Hole Cape Cod Nano for the more tepid Temple Reef Stealth STK. This move came shortly after I dumped a large sturgeon after applying really big pressure. As you will see I didn’t change my equipment, but, I did back off a few pounds of drag to 16-18lbs instead of lock down 30lb. So that I am clear on my intentions, I completely understand using gear that is matched for the target species, if anything, I mostly use under gunned gear for all my fishing, lots of ultra light, medium/fast rods and 1000/2500 series Shimano. Already having this big equipment in my arsenal, it just seemed to make sense to bring it and make it work. Bringing a new set of tools to the job site can sometimes spur animosity from others using a medium hammer. I remember when a long muskie rod was 6’6”, I don’t even think those are available any longer, my point is between reel and rod there can still be a fun setting and a comfortable setting and I don’t believe these rods were at all too much hammer. Don’t be ashamed to look at one of these large Shimano spinning reels for this type of fishing, having the reel under the rod, center weighted and balanced makes for a very comfortable setup. I feel that for people with average to slightly below average hand and forearm strength these big spin reels would be even better, as the angler is not fighting the torque of a casting reel that wants to be pulled off axis, side to side.
Once again I will give a shout out to my brewing friends here in MN that filled our growlers with epic tasting brews:
Bad Weather Brewing Company (St. Paul, MN)
- “Migration” Blonde Ale (5.5%)
- “Ominous” Double Brown Ale (7.5%)
- “Immortal Toast” White Stout (6.7%)
Vine Park Brewing (St. Paul, MN)
- “Dortmunder Export” Golden Lager
- “Tornado Alley” German Alt Bier
Lift Bridge Brewing Company (Stillwater, MN)
- “The Warden” Stout (4.1%)
- “93X Brotherhood” American Lager (4%)
Hammerheart Brewing Company (Lino Lakes, MN)
- “Thor’s Porter” Smoked Hot Pepper Porter (9.5%)
- “British Invasion” Pale Ale (6.5%)
Castle Danger Brewery (Two Harbors, MN)
- “Castle Cream Ale” (5.5%)
- “Summer Crush” Ale (4%)
Kona Brewing Company (Kailua-Kona, HI)
- “Big Wave” Golden Ale (4.4%)
Without investing money in lighting and expensive cameras, this video is a rough cut edit of the hilarity that ensued the battles between man, beast, beer and terminal tackle. I had fun editing this down to a manageable length, even though its slightly longer than the first, there is more fish catching and less B Roll footage. Unfortunately, it was a dark bite, capturing it all was difficult, relying on headlamps and whatever light source possible to give the cameras anything to grab onto. I hope you can grab your favorite brew, sit back and enjoy. There is an ample amount of foul language in this video, so put the kiddos to bed and headphones on. You’ve been warned!
Thanks to all who enjoy these episodes, I’m always humbled to hear from you.
Rainy River Sturgeon Fishing - “Crawlers and Growlers” Episode 1
“Crawlers & Growlers” Part I
They say, “you can’t do it all”. For most of us this is true, but I wonder what the biggest limiting factor of this really is. Any attempt to “do it all” will eventually lead to discovery of an activity that will need to be repeated year after year, taking time and resources away from the next, new, “all”. When it came to sturgeon fishing in early April, it always seemed to be in the middle of one of my repeat activities, Spring crappie fishing. Regardless of the late ice-out we are having, I would have still taken good friends Mike Crawford and Blake LaFleur up on this offer. The Rainy River is a resource easily within reach of me in regards to location, but seemed far away as something I considered an option this time of year. Now that has completely changed and “doing it all” just got busier. I don’t see myself missing this experience many times in the future.
When a tradition is created, many times those involved had no intention of doing so. The best traditions seem to be formed by accident, are repeated due to the people, places, activities and the overall experience. The title of this chapter and subsequent videos from this trip may end up being extended to include the year, more friends and more types of craft beer. Below is a list of the different Breweries and their Brew that were consumed 3oz’s at a time over 3 days. Each brewery has its own unique atmosphere and types of brews, however, there is one constant similarity I have noticed about the people that put their life into making these, deep passion. Like anything made using creativity, there is a skilled art-like process that is used by all these brewmasters to make their own “paintings”. Working with them hearing their stories makes a good day better. Next time you are around any of these places, stop in and take a look around, sample a few different brews and bring a 64oz Growler of your favorite home with you. I have my favorites from each, and cannot single one out as the best. I will give mention to Hammerheart’s “Thor’s Porter” as a unique, strong, dark and somewhat spicy brew that made me happy. Also, Bad Weather “Ominous” and the Castle Danger “Summer Crush” were both very tasty. I now have a large collection of empty Growlers and experienced a slight setback in Operation Weight Loss, but damn it was worth it all.
Bad Weather Brewing Company (St. Paul, MN)
- “Migration” Blonde Ale (5.5%)
- “Ominous” Double Brown Ale (7.5%)
- “Immortal Toast” White Stout (6.7%)
Vine Park Brewing (St. Paul, MN)
- “Dortmunder Export” Golden Lager
- “Tornado Alley” German Alt Bier
Lift Bridge Brewing Company (Stillwater, MN)
- “The Warden” Stout (4.1%)
- “93X Brotherhood” American Lager (4%)
Hammerheart Brewing Company (Lino Lakes, MN)
- “Thor’s Porter” Smoked Hot Pepper Porter (9.5%)
- “British Invasion” Pale Ale (6.5%)
Castle Danger Brewery (Two Harbors, MN)
- “Castle Cream Ale” (5.5%)
- “Summer Crush” Ale (4%)
Kona Brewing Company (Kailua-Kona, HI)
- “Big Wave” Golden Ale (4.4%)
As for the fishing, thats a whole different discussion. All I know about sturgeon fishing is what I have heard from others. Most, if not all, sturgeon fishing stories have a chapter regarding a 1 hour long fight. Aside from the fact that this cannot be optimal for a fish carrying spawn, one would have to think, especially knowing what I do about pounds of force applied, that something is being done wrong. After watching a few other anglers get involved with these extended battles it was obvious that both equipment, and more importantly, technique was lacking. I don’t even consider myself close to being an expert on saltwater fish fighting technique, but I have done quite a bit of lifting weights on rods with different reels and drag settings with lessons from anglers who have the knowledge. While spin cast rods with a PE 10 rating, spin reels with 55lbs drag, 53” line per crank and stand up belts and harnesses may have been a little overkill, our goal was to see how fast we could get these fish to the boat and released. The first 4 I caught between 50-59” tallied a total of 5 minutes of fight time, big pressure and quick crank downs turned the fish immediately to the boat, their end game was still quite impressive as the fights under the boat were very real. I do give these fish respect, we were handing them 63% tuna force and they still buried the rods pretty good. The angler had the advantage even without the AFTCO Belt and Braid Harness as the river flow was way down, I believe a sturgeons greatest ally is current, without it they can’t use their bodies as a plane that forces water and weight over their backs. I hope next year is more of an advantage for them as I do not plan on downsizing my tackle any time soon.