Fishing Opener Brings Excitement, Business To Bait Shop

The fishing opener is about fun, according to Debbie Fisher, whose husband, Greg Fisher, co-owns Vados Bait in Spring Lake Park, just a block from Fridley.

The fishing season starts Friday at midnight, and it's when walleye, northern pike, and sauger become legal game on the state’s inland waters, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Debbie Fisher stood along Central Avenue Friday afternoon holding up signs reading, “Got Bait?” and “Leeches.” She and her sister do it every year on the Friday of the Fishing Opener, “just for fun.”

“People waited all year for this, so it’s just a chance for them to have fun—even during the getting-the-bait process,” she said.

Greg Fisher, who co-owns the shop with his cousin, Eric Stokes, said the day before fishing opener is "definitely our busiest day of the year.”

This week alone, he said, he has sold 800 pounds of leeches, between the store and his shipping service. Vados Bait has an online shipping service that delivers live bait and fishing tackle to almost anywhere in the continental United States.

“It’s an incredibly fun day,” Greg Fisher said. “There’s a lot of excitement in fishermen today, especially when you’ve had such a long winter such as this one."

Vados Bait
Vados Bait started selling live bait and fishing tackle in 1947 in Minneapolis. The store moved to its current location in Spring Lake Park in 1950. In 2000, Greg Fisher and Stokes bought the store from the Vados family.

The store’s website offers care tips for bait such as leeches, night crawlers, angleworms, wax worms, maggots, mealworms, mousies and fresh water shrimp.

Local Fisherman
Justin Ranallo, 17, of Fridley is planning to go fishing Friday at midnight with friends along the shore of Long Lake in New Brighton. He has fished ever since he can remember—his grandfather used to take him, and then when he couldn’t, his dad would take him.

Ranallo hopes to catch walleye, which he said are fairly common at Long Lake although there’s “not a huge population.” He is prepared with about a half-pound of leeches.

According to the Minnesota DNR’s Web site, “Minnesota anglers consider the fishing opener one of the defining moments of the year.”

That fits Ranallo. “I’ve been excited for today,” he said. “I just love fishing. It’s really relaxing just sitting there, but then when you get that bite, it’s just an adrenaline rush.”