Northern Minnesota’s Stu Osthoff says timing is key to fishing success in canoe country

Stu Osthoff has been fishing Minnesota’s canoe country for 50 years. He still goes out every summer, still guides 10-day wilderness trips, and still gets a little bothered when someone drifts a line while paddling.
“That’s not fishing,” he says. “That’s wishing.” Osthoff, 69, is publisher and editor of the Boundary Waters Journal and runs what he calls his Grand Slam Guide Service, leading clients deep into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park in pursuit of four species: smallmouth bass, walleye, lake trout, and northern pike.