To be a Ferrell man is to be a fisherman. Mike Ferrell can’t recall the first time his grandfather took him fishing off the shore of Powderhorn Lake, but he does remember parading around his grandparents’ backyard with his first two crappies dangling from the end of a stick. As he grew older, Mike’s father and uncle began taking him out on Lake Nokomis. That’s where Mike caught his first muskie (or a “pike on steroids,” as he calls it) and became addicted to fishing for life.
“I went to college in Ely where I studied fisheries and wildlife management,” said Mike, “and I worked at Skube's Bait & Tackle when I wasn’t in class. One day a guy walked into the shop, so tall he could have hit his head on the ceiling. I wasn’t familiar with basketball at the time or I would have known he was Kevin Gamble from the Sacramento Kings. He told me he wanted to go fishing and that he usually went with the store owner. I told him the owner was out playing golf, so he could either go with me or go alone.
“You usually only see rowboats and canoes around Ely, not this guy’s 20-foot Skeeter with a 200 horse motor and all the bells and whistles. I was very nervous, but at the same time I kept the mentality that we were just going fishing, no different than usual. I took him to a spot on Shagawa Lake where I’d been doing well all that week. In about three hours we pulled in 30 walleye and 20 smallmouth bass. He caught a 28-inch walleye that day – his personal best. He decided to bring it to the taxidermist, so he probably still has it.
“Mr. Gamble paid me $500 for taking him out that day, which is pretty substantial for a 19-year-old kid. But when the owner came in to work the next day, he told me he’d take half for his ‘finder’s fee!’
“A few years later I was staying at a resort in west Minnesota. They must have been short-staffed, because the owner of the place asked me to take some of his other guests out fishing. One of them, a Marine who had served in Vietnam, didn’t seem to like me all that much. I guess I asked him all the wrong questions and otherwise pushed his buttons.
“Toward the end of the trip the Marine asked me to stop the boat. ‘Thanks for this,’ he said. ‘It was a nice relief.’ I began to thank him for his service, but he cut me off, telling me to be quiet and not so cliché. I’ll never forget what he said after that.
“‘While I was out there, I wasn’t thinking about paying my bills or mortgage, my wife or my kids, my job or the military. I got to listen to the water, and just think about the fish.’
“That night I told my girlfriend Allie I want to take veterans out fishing. We looked into volunteering with other organizations, but decided we could do it best by ourselves. My boss at the time, another fishing guide named Matt Johnson, took us out to Rapid Marine in Rogers where he helped us pick out our first boat. We printed out some fliers, and in 2014 we started taking veterans out fishing free of charge, just doing whatever we could with the cash in our pockets. In two years we needed a bigger boat, at which point Allie told me we were going to go broke if we didn’t start making some money. That’s really when Memories Made Guide Service officially started.
“Our guide service is based in Apple Valley, and we fish all over the state with a focus on Lake Minnetonka. We’ll go after all the fish Minnesota has to offer in our Crestliner 1850 Fish Hawk with top-of-the-line electronics and tournament model rods. If you’ve never fished before, we’ll tell you what to expect and what kind of attire to wear. We only offer half-day trips, because a full day out on the water can be kind of a grind even for an expert angler. We don’t want you getting burned out there!
“Eden Prairie has some of my favorite fishing in the whole state. Bryant Lake is one of the town’s best kept secrets, full of panfish that are easy for a beginner to reel in. You need a park pass to fish there, but it’s worth it. Nearby Lake Minnewashta is catch and release only for bass, which means the fish there can easily grow to trophy size. It’s a great spot for topwater fishing with all its shallows and lily pads. And any Minnesota lake with a dock is prime fishing for largemouth bass – just throw out a weedless Chatterbait or let a jig worm sink to the bottom. When it comes to bass in general, a jig and a worm are your best weapons.
“Catching fish is the easy part for a guide. My real passion is spreading knowledge. I always feel most fulfilled whenever I can help my clients gain the confidence they need to go out and do it themselves. When that happens, I know I’ve done my job right.”
You can learn more about Mike and his mission and book your own trip at memoriesmadeguides.com.