(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Male Speaker] Oh, we nipped it.

- McLovin is responsible for about 90% of the muskies I've caught.

All right.

Good little 'skie to start the day off here.

- [Narrator] Both the Stargazer and the Long Prairie Treehouse give guests an above-ground experience away from city lights.

(upbeat music) - [Female Speaker] Funding for this program was provided by Safe Basements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990, peace of mind is a safe basement.

Live Wide Open.

The more people know about west-central Minnesota, the more reasons they have to live here.

More at livewideopen.com.

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters where peace, relaxation, and opportunities await.

And the members of Pioneer PBS.

- [Male Speaker] They say it's the fish of 10,000 casts.

Today, we're in Maplewood State Park in search of the apex predator, lurking beneath Minnesota waters, the Muskie.

(upbeat music) Randon Olsen is from Lock Jaw Guide Service in Otter Tail County and spends a lot of time on the water chasin' muskies.

- You gotta really go big The more, the bigger of those oval you can draw, or bigger the zero, more room for that fish to turn and kind of ambush that bait.

You'll, a lot of times, you'll see 'em, they'll come around and they'll almost hesitate under your feet.

And when you come up out here they'll shoot out and grab it.

They don't have to eat everything that comes by 'em like a small pike or walleye, or bass, or somethin' like that.

They can be real choosy.

So that's where the curiosity comes in.

They wanna make sure it's something they wanna eat before they chomp on it.

So top of the food chain, that's where there's no fear in these fish.

That's what makes 'em so fun to catch.

Oh, there's a muskie.

Here's a muskie right here.

He came up in any swam back down.

Well, that was quick.

I was just gettin' this bucktail back to the boat here and just about to start a figure eight or a big loop here next to the boat when I saw the fish, and then our first sighting right away.

What have we been out here fishing, 10 minutes?

- [Male Speaker] Yeah, maybe 30 casts.

- I thought they were the fish of 10,000 casts, Randon.

- They're the fish of one cast, but sometimes it makes 9,999 to get there.

- I always joke that a good day of muskie-fishin' is seein' one.

- [Narrator] This is Beers Lake, one of eight major lakes nestled into the 9,250 acre Maplewood State Park.

A fishing license isn't necessary for Minnesota residents but you will need a park pass.

- [Male Speaker] With the new moon today.

This is, this is the day in September.

Generally speaking, all your big fish get caught either on the new moon or full moon.

And new moon usually provides better daytime fishing.

There's no hard rules in muskie fishing, cause they can do whatever they want, but there's kinda some guidelines.

- [Male Speaker] So you mainly a muskie guy or you kind of a multi-species, or whatever?

- Multi-species, I would say muskies are probably my favorite, but I do a lot of walleye trips throughout the year, a lot of crappies and bass.

- [Male Speaker] But once you became a muskie angler, I didn't think you could afford to do anything else.

You could buy about six, six bass boats with what you got in that muskie tackle box right there.

- I ended up starting to make a lot of my own lures - [Male Speaker] Oh really?

- Just because of that, you know, they're 50 bucks a piece.

- [Male Speaker] So am I fishing with one of your own creations then?

- That's McLovin'.

- [Male Speaker] Now, this is probably the most important Muskie question I'm gonna ask you today, who gets to name the lures?

- Some of these, I think people get out to a party and wait till about two in the morning, and then start naming baits.

- [Male Speaker] Sounds like a good time.

(upbeat music) - So it was 39 degrees when we drove up here this morning.

Fall is beginning.

And I'm curious, Randon, what, you know, when the air temp drops like that, and the water temperatures start to drop, how does that affect muskies?

- [Randon] More times than not.

it actually picks them up a little bit, and I'm not sure, you know, their instincts are kinda put the feed bag on for fall and get everything ripened up for winter, but I'm not sure if it has something to do with the other fish species slowing down a little bit during cold fronts or what it is.

- [Randon] Oh, that makes sense.

- They kind of seem to kind of kick it into another year almost during cold fronts.

- [Randon] Like all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, Hey "that fish is just sitting there, "I'm gonna eat him".

You just never know with muskies.

Always have to be paying attention always looking in the water.

You never know when there's going to be a fish behind whatever presentation you got out there.

And we just finished our first spot here.

We came in and worked around this Island and back into the bay right here.

We did see one fish.

Randon was saying he averages about a fish an hour a lot of times on a good day, that's what you were sayin'.

- [Randon] Yep.

- You'll see a fish an hour.

So we've seen one here in the first hour.

Now we're gonna move to the next spot.

So we're out of the minor now.

One thing that I don't really change a lot when I get out of the minor, I still wanna fish faster.

I just like to try to be able to try to find fish.

You can get 'em to rise up, you come back and you get that little wind change, or cloud cover, whatever.

(upbeat music) It's weird what'll trigger 'em.

You know, sometimes it's the smallest thing like if the cloud goes in front of the sun, all the sudden they'll get active for five minutes.

- [Narrator] Muskie fishing involves a lot of patience, expensive baits and a boatload of luck.

This is a Poe's Jackpot.

This is my all time favorite muskie lure to throw.

I've never caughten a fish on it.

In 15 years.

- [Male Speaker] This will be the time to catch one on it.

- [Male Speaker] Once again, his favorite lure proved to be unlucky, but his next choice was a different story.

- Two of 'em, two of 'em.

- [Male Speaker] Double, come on.

(orchestral music) Double follow, that's awesome.

- Two mid 40's, they were good fish.

- [Male Speaker] While those two fish gave us some excitement, Randon realized what our problem was.

- [Randon] You gotta have a sinking lure stuck in the net.

- You're a little superstitious, aren't ya?

- Yeah, you gotta be, with muskie fish.

Whenever we'd first started, we'd always hook a fish when the net's buried under tackle boxes and you're not ready.

Once we started learning you get your net ready before you even leave the access, you'd go through dry spells where you wouldn't see nothin', wouldn't catch nothin'.

So we thought, well, maybe we gotta go back to havin' the net hard to get at.

So we started throwing lures in the net and it would work.

It has to be a sinking lure.

You can't throw it top water and there's nothing that you're gonna be able to just get back.

You have to be willing to lose it and you can't place it.

You have to just throw it.

Wherever it lands, that's it.

- [Male Speaker] Well, that's a superstition I've never heard of before, but it worked.

(upbeat music) - [Male Speaker] No giant, but a starter fish.

(upbeat music) - [Male Speaker] There we go.

- [Male Speaker] Hey, all right.

On the board.

Nice.

Not a big one, but, it's a muskie.

- It's a muskie, it's a good start.

Got this one casting, a Medusa, a big rubber bait.

They work really good in the fall.

We're in that fall transition time here where kinda a lot of different things are working.

You just got to figure out what they want each day.

So this is a really nice, true muskie.

A lot of times you'll get these spots on the smaller ones for awhile.

And they'll clear up kinda when they get older, but beautiful fish here.

Nice big sharp teeth on her.

Yeah she's a gorgeous fish.

She's gonna be big some days.

Get her back in the water, let her go.

(upbeat music) So today is the new moon.

Generally speaking, most of your big fish that you hear getting caught of every year are either on the new moon or the full moon.

They say the new moon's better for daytime, and that full moon's better nighttime.

I think it's a lot to do with like the pressure in the sky and stuff.

It's the lunar tables, what it goes off of, the tides on the ocean.

- [Male Speaker] I blame aliens.

- [Randon] And bigfoot.

- [Male Speaker] Over the next couple of hours, we hit each part of the lake, trying out a number of different presentations.

Oh yeah, he's still there.

(upbeat music) Yep.

Oh he nipped it.

- [Male Speaker] But the big fish just wouldn't commit.

- Hate Muskie fishing.

- [Male Speaker] While we hadn't caught any muskies on it, there was one lure in particular that was getting their attention.

- The Tinkerbell, it's not completely my idea.

It's completely homemade.

It's uglier than sin.

The fish like it, it works good.

It's a heavy bait.

Let's explain why that bait is so heavy.

- Well back in high school, my shop teacher had made kind of a, it's a fake musket.

But he used like, made a wood stock, put a conduit for the barrel on it and everything.

And he had to make somethin' to make a ball for it, you know?

They milled out the chunk of aluminum into a round ball to fit into that.

Well, they never used that mold again.

So I took the mold home and that's where we made the head of Tinkerbell out of.

So it's just a, it's a, I don't even know what caliber that would be, but it's a big one.

- [Male Speaker] Muskie caliber.

- [Randon] Muskie caliber.

- Tinkerbell tantalized the muskies to some degree but did not have the mesmerizing effect that Medusa did.

(upbeat music) - [Male Speaker] Still got 'em?

- [Randon] Oh yeah, he's hooked pretty good.

- [Male Speaker] What you got there Randon?

- [Randon] Nice muskie.

- [Male Speaker] Oh yeah it is.

- [Randon] Oh I guess she's barely hooked.

I'm going to play her kind of easy.

She just looked in the side.

(upbeat music) All right, we got her.

- [Male Speaker] All right, woo!

- [Randon] That's a little better one.

- Nice.

Nice.

- That is a gorgeous fish.

What I've heard over the years and I don't know for sure, but I've heard that a 40 inch muskie's about 10 years old, and that they'll grow quick 'til they hit 40.

And then they swell up after that.

So 44, probably 13 years old 14 years old, somethin' like that.

- [Male Speaker] It's really amazing how an experience with one big muskie can really change a guy's opinion on wanting to chase him, you know?

Literally hook a guy into muskie fishing.

- [Randon] Right, my best analogy is it's catch and release deer hunting.

- [Male Speaker] Yeah.

- [Randon] It's that same feeling when you're sittin' in your deer stand.

You're tired of watchin' squirrels, and all the sudden, that big buck walks out, and your knees start shaking.

It's the same feeling when you see that muskie.

- [Male Speaker] Muskie fever.

- [Randon] Muskie fever.

(upbeat music) - [Male Speaker] The whimsical decor features Jill's stenciling and quotes from the trilogy throughout.

The theme extends to the gardens below where chainsaw artist Mark Kurtz turned an odd shaped stump into a Hobbit creature.

(upbeat music) - [Female Speaker] Which crayfish is native to Minnesota, and which is the invader?

The answer is coming up right after this - Oh my God.

- [Male Speaker] Treehouse Masters has inspired many dreams of building a lodge that reaches to the sky.

Two couples living in Minnesota's Heartland did more than dream.

They built a long prairie tree house and Skygazer sky cabin that offer guests an uplifting experience.

In both cases, one spouse had to convince the other that this wasn't just a crazy fantasy.

- We had three different areas of land that, you know, I dreamt about building this tree house, and my husband kept trying to talk me out of it.

And then I started buying stuff for the inside of it, knowing that someday I would have a tree house, and it took a lot of years to finally have it come true.

- So she brought this wood stove home one day.

And I said, "What's that for"?

"Oh, it's for the treehouse".

- [Male Speaker] The home the Lavoys's purchased in 1999 only had two bedrooms and Joyce insisted they needed a guesthouse, so their kids had a place to sleep when they visited.

She had read all the books by treehouse master, Peter Nelson, and had a pretty good idea how she wanted it designed.

Neighbors Ron and Nancy Leesman, a carpenter and an artist, drew a plan an helped them frame it up.

With the help of friends, daughters and boyfriends, the tree house took about two years to complete - [Joyce] This is Richard and I putting on the siding.

Isn't this great, this woman up here, just with that drill?

- [Male Speaker] She didn't do that.

- [Joyce] Oh yes she did.

Building the outhouse.

We have this whole group that would be called the flush of crappers that came out to help us tip the toilet up.

This is one of the cards that I got from my daughter, that she said, "Dream big".

- [Male Speaker] The tree house is built on three red oaks.

- The deal is, if you ever build a deer stand between two trees and them trees wobble in the wind, and it breaks a board, so I had to cobble up a deal, I made some beams, some white oak beams, that are doubled up two by 12's, and then they'll slide on these steel brackets that I made so it'll give a little bit.

Ceilings, quite a deal.

You know, it was all that kind of open.

We didn't know how to finish it off and stuff.

And so I got that galvanized tin there.

- You get to your little place to eat and a little bottle place to drink your bottle of wine, place to relax, place to sleep.

(upbeat music) It has deck around two thirds of it.

And so there's room for chairs and tables, and just to sit out.

And the best thing about sitting up that high, especially in the summertime out here, is that the mosquitoes don't go up that high.

- [Male Speaker] A friend donated old windows, but in hindsight, the Lavoy's say they should have spent money on new ones.

- The story I tell my people who come to visit is the windows never leak when the sun shines.

They leak a little when it rains a little, and they leak a lot when it rains a lot.

The house is lit with lanterns and candles, as the only electricity comes from an extension cord running from their house.

I tell people it may charge your phone but don't expect more than that.

Originally the guest house was only intended for family and friends, until it was featured in the Minneapolis Tribune.

- But somebody called up, "Can the stay"?

Well I suppose, you know, we're not fussy.

So it evolved into her bed and breakfast, and make 'em something to eat, and a bottle of wine and a t-shirt, and the whole deal.

(upbeat music) The Lavoy's rent the tree house to guests on a limited basis.

The only marketing is by word of mouth and media stories, including a feature on CBS.

A few years ago, the Lavoy's heard about another couple who had built a tree-high cabin in Upsala.

So we're over that one day, and stopped in to meet 'em.

And we liked 'em, they had quite the deal.

- We really are happy to have other people join kind of the unconventional things in life.

- Were just so nice and we got to be friends with them and have shared campfires.

- Yes, yes, we were just over there a few weeks ago.

- [Male Speaker] Like Joyce, Jill had to convince her spouse to build on high.

- We're sitting in front of our timber-frame cottage, it started out as my music studio and also a guest space.

- Then, you know, we were watching Treehouse Masters, and we were like, "Oh, this is so cool.

"Be fun to do that".

But Joan is a little more common-sensical than I am, so she said that would probably be stupid.

So, well-- - You have to understand, we had done a lot of renovation projects, clearing of the land, I was done.

And when she wanted to build a treehouse, I really culled to the idea.

- And so I thought, you know, in my desperation, maybe we can, you know, rent it out.

- She said, oh if you think we can rent it out, let's rent out what we've got and see what happens.

- And then I thought, "Pop goes my dream", but we put it on AirBnb, and within hours we had pings, we went into St.

Cloud and I was driving on the way home, we got three reservations, and so we, it was just really a hit.

- It was the basis of that success that we decided to go ahead building the Stargazer.

We are both "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" fans.

And we decided on the "Lord of the Rings" theme mostly for her.

Jill and Joan employed their artistic talents in designing while building the Stargazer sky cabin.

With the help of contractors, it took about 18 months to complete.

- Some unusual features tested their patience, like the floor.

We went through all kinds of things with it and and freaked out many times.

And many times, Joan said, "Do we have to have a cool floor"?

"Could we just have a floor"?

- [Joan] Does everything have to be coal?

The floor is covered with epoxy that had to be stirred constantly in small quantities to prevent air bubbles.

Basically for every 15 minutes of stir, we had two minutes of pour, and we had a whole floor to do it, it took us all day.

And I said to Joel, at some point, I'm feeling a little Ma Pa Kettle this year, you know, just sittin' around there and stirrin' the crock pot, so you know.

- After a Google search for ideas, they designed a dumbwaiter system on a garage door opener track installed vertically, so guests don't have to haul luggage up the steep stairs.

Although the Stargazer isn't actually built on trees, it has an outdoor feel with 53 windows, and tree branches reaching to the high ceilings.

(upbeat music) The whimsical decor features Jill's stenciling and quotes from the trilogy throughout.

The theme extends to the gardens below where chainsaw artist Mark Kurtz turned an odd shaped stump into a Hobbit creature.

- Smog is from Lord of the rings, of course, in the Hobbit.

But this is not Smog, which was the case for Tolkien invention, this is Smug, Smogs twin sister, who doesn't have all of the horrible testosterone issues that makes her brother like roast people alive.

And she also is not a hoarder.

She just wants the flowers to grow up around her and be peaceful.

- [Male Speaker] With fold-down beds, the Stargazer sleeps six and the cabin five.

Both are solar powered and made with recycled materials, such as wood from a house that was about to be demolished.

Chickens are part of the experience and every guest receives a half dozen eggs when they arrive.

- We have different color eggs.

We have chickens that lay blue and green eggs.

And then I write a little chicken story in with each thing of eggs, which sometimes one of the chickens, you know, thinks she's found true romance with Leo Leghorn down.

- Yeah, so it's called, the collection's called the Chicken Chronicles.

- [Male Speaker] Both the stargazer and the Long Prairie Treehouse give guests an above ground experience away from city lights.

And they just kind of want to come and see the stars again, and to get some R&R, build a bonfire, lay in a hammock, kick back, get in the hot tub.

- A great place to relax, quiet, which you can't find very often anymore, and I love sharing it with others.

- [Female Speaker] Which crayfish is native to Minnesota and which is the invader?

The invader is rusty crayfish.

How do we tell the invasive rusty from the native Calico crayfish?

Rusty crayfish have red spots on the sides of its carapace.

Calico do not.

Rusty crayfish claws form an oval when closed.

Calico claws have a distinctive notch in their pinchers.

Rusty crayfish grew up to five inches long.

Calicos grow to only three and a half inches.

Why are rusty crayfish a problem?

They destroy aquatic plant beds and displace native crayfish.

Invasive crayfish breed with native and replace the population with hybrids.

Rusty crayfish consume fish eggs and compete with fish for prey.

Where are they found?

Rusty crayfish are often found in shallow two to three feet-deep water on a variety of bottoms.

(upbeat music) - [Female Speaker] We can stop these invaders from infesting more lakes and streams by cleaning up everything we pull out of the water.

It's a simple drill, clean in, clean out.

Before leaving a water access, clean your boat and water equipment.

Remove and dispose of all plants and aquatic species in the trash.

Remove drain plugs from your boat, drain build, live well and bay containers, and keep them out when transporting your watercraft.

Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

If you have been in infested waters, also spray your boat with high pressure water, rinse with very hot water, dry for at least five days.

Stop the spread of AIS.

Funding for the segment was provided by the aquatic invasive species task forces of Wright, Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac Qui Parle, and Big Stone counties.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Funding for this program was provided by Safe Basements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990, peace of mind is a safe basement, Live Wide Open, the more people know about West central Minnesota the more reasons they have to live here.

More at livewideopen.com.

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, where peace, relaxation, and opportunities await, and the members of pioneer PBS.

- All of these beams are poplar.

Poplar is kind of a hard soft wood.

And we actually harvested those locally which was kind of fun to just go out in the woods, we're really starting from scratch.

But these are like old cedar telephone poles.

They're 80 years old.

And so those are recycled from telephone poles.