The appointment of Gene Merriam as DNR Commissioner has brought a favorable response from almost everyone concerned. He, along with new Deputy DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten, has promised to establish a better relationship with outdoors interest groups from around the state.

In past years a lot of the money collected from license fees and different habitat groups wasn’t always used as intended. Merriam said the money collected for various programs should be designated for those programs. The past practice has created a lot of animosity between the outdoors interest groups and the DNR.

Merriam has a strong background in legislature and working with agricultural and natural resources committees. The idea of having both the DNR Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner actually being outdoors enthusiasts is a refreshing one.

When Governor Ventura went out of his way to find a commissioner with no outdoors ties except for an occasional bike ride, we should have known it wasn’t going to be pretty or practical.

Merriam will have his work cut out for him. With the budget deficit we are facing we can’t expect to see an instant turnaround, but I think we will see some good policy changes that can be beneficial to everyone concerned with the outdoors.

I never really liked the idea of my fishing-license money being used for the highway fund with the rationale that you need the roads to go to the lake. Do you think?

I guess when I was younger I never really gave much thought, or really cared about who was head of the DNR. Now with land for habitat and wildlife becoming more and more scarce, it is more closely monitored by everyone just a little concerned about the future of Minnesota’s outdoors.

The lakes we were fishing 20 years ago are now being shared by water skiers, sail boaters and personal watercraft. I personally have nothing against any of the aforementioned, but it just shows that with the population increasing there are more varied interests in outdoors recreation.

I have mentioned before about going on a family outing to St. Olaf and Beaver Lakes for an afternoon of picnicking and fishing. Nice weather would always bring out the people, but most were there for picnicking, swimming or fishing. It was a big deal for most of us to rent a boat for an afternoon. Now there aren’t that many places left that still rent them but there are a lot more boat owners.

There are a lot of outdoors activities we can enjoy year around, and with proper management, our natural resources will always be there for our use.

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We have actually accumulated a little snow cover this past week. It’s not much to brag about but it lets us remember where we live.

The ice fishing in the area has been fair, and even with the unusually warm weather we have had for most of the winter there have been some fish being caught.

In the Waterville and Faribault areas there have been some walleye caught along with a fair amount of crappie and sunfish.

I think it’s time for me to make a trip to Cabelas and get a &uot;quick fix&uot; for this case of cabin fever I feel coming on.

I usually try to avoid the area that has all the latest lures. I don’t know if some of those new &uot;flashy&uot; looking lures will ever catch a fish, but they hook their share of fishermen.

I try to stick to the basics, jigs, spinners, and hooks and, of course, a pack or two of Berkeley Power Bait.

Whenever I’m in a large sporting goods store there always seems to be something that resembles the &uot;Call of the Wild&uot; that beckons me to the section I know is holding the largest predator of all, the &uot;Muskie Lure.&uot; Just thinking about it gets the adrenaline flowing. Which one will I ad to my collection? There are lures larger than some dogs, and it always makes me wonder what kind of a &uot;Real Man&uot; could throw a lure like that all day without turning his arm to a quivering mass of jelly. I doubt that even Arnold Schwartzenegger would be up to the task.

I used to buy lures every chance I got until my wife put the thing into perspective with one question: &uot;Why do you have all those lures and still use live bait?&uot;

I think that is called a subliminal message, and it worked. Now, every time that I have two or three lures in hand, I will hear those words and narrow my selection down to the one that I really can’t get along without.