It all started when I read this article (http://www.kare11.com/story/life/2015/02/18/girl-scout-cookies-ice-fishermen-chisago/23654355/) about a girl in Minnesota who found a new customer base for Girl Scout cookies in ice fisherman I told my daughter and she was super excited to venture out to find ice fisherman in our area (of which there are quite a few). So, Saturday morning that’s just what we did. Just two miles down the road from our house I was certain we would find some fishing close to shore, but alas, there were none there. So, further along the Great River Road we traveled. A few miles south we found a few men fishing near shore, but we opted to go further south yet. When we came upon a few dozen fisherman I could not figure out how or where they parked to walk/drive halfway across the main channel of the Mississippi River. This, I told my daughter was out of the question. I was much too nervous to walk that far on the frozen river to sell cookies.
To make the story a little shorter we traveled back north to where the few fisherman were parked along the road. Down a set of stairs, across the railroad tracks and onto the ice all while carrying a large bag of Girl Scout cookies we went. All four fisherman fishing near shore not only bought cookies, but one took a picture of us with our cookies, and us of them, another burst out laughing as he unzipped his ice shanty window and said, “I have friends emailing me and friends calling me [asking to buy cookies], but I told them that I had to see a girl scout.” Alas, there he was on the ice seeing a girl scout. We were directed to travel south and was told how to get to the few dozen fisherman in the middle of the river……find Mike! Mike, works at the bait shop/motel and he gives roundtrip rides to fisherman on his four wheeler for $5. We set out to find Mike and see if he would give us a ride to the fisherman further out, not for $5, but for a box of cookies. By the time we found Mike he had already heard about the girl scout selling cookies on the ice. He said he would give us a ride, not for cookies, but for free and he would buy cookies. My daughter and I giggled as we rode in the trailer of his four wheeler across the bumpy icy covered in a few inches of snow and off we went!
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| This is how far out on the ice we walked before hooking up with Mike. |
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Fisherman from Indiana with their purchased cookies
(standing in front of their beer cans, they didn't want them to show up in the picture :)
These are the guys who told us about Mike. |
In the middle of the river he took a picture of us and dropped us off with his business card, instructed me to call him when we were ready for a ride back, and his sled loaded with boxes of cookies.
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| Riding in the four wheeler pulling a sled. |
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Mississippi River, here we come!
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With Mike being dropped off. Next stop, that red ice shanty in the background.
Nearly every fisherman bought a box (or more!) and many even told my little Brownie to keep the change! One man told us the ice was thicker than my daughter, which made me feel safe. Even though there were pickup trucks parked all along the ice, I still couldn’t believe we were walking across the frozen Mississippi! There was even an old golden retriever out there who we got to love on. A few told us what a great idea this was and disappointingly told us that if the fish were biting there would have been many, many more fisherman for her to sell cookies.
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| Off she goes! |
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| It's windy out on the open ice. We learned that fisherman don't fish near each other unless they know each other. |
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| "Any fish down there want to buy Girl Scout cookies?!" |
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Making a sale.
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After Mike picked us up he took another picture, one with our cheeks pink and our load lighter and asked to post it on Facebook. He asked Laura’s name and mine and I said he could just put “Laura and her mom” I then told him my name and he smiled and said, “OK, Laura and her mom”. Mike bought three boxes of cookies and said she could come any time and he’d give us another free ride out.
Three hours and 60+ boxes of cookies later we were home cold and tired from our trek.
I got home and looked up Water’s Edge Marina and Motel on Facebook and there we were! I had fun reading people’s comments and was proud of my Brownie entrepreneur. On Sunday, the wind chill was -20° and she was ready to find more icefisherman, but I directed her instead toward her loyal neighborhood customer base.
The fish weren’t biting that morning, but many people caught girl scout cookies that day! I have a feeling that next year on opening cookie selling weekend you’ll be able to find us back on the river selling…
