A grand way to open the fishing season.Those that helped make this year’s Governor’s Fishing Opener are calling it a success. They say the community came together to help showcase the best of the Brainerd Lakes Area.

Grand View Lodge marketing director, Frank Soukup, says, “Like minded individuals all focused together on one goal, that goal being tourism to the area. And it was a great committee and great people that we worked with. You know given the question again would I do this again, given the experience I received I definitely would.”

Jenna Crawford, Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce Pequot Lake director, says, “We have a very competitive spirit. And our exec committee was very competitive saying we’re going to take everything they did, because they did an awesome job in Park Rapids and we’re going to do it better. We’re going to showcase what we really have here in the Brainerd Lakes Area and I think we did that.”

Grand View Lodge says it was a very profitable Mother’s Day Weekend for them.
Soukup says, “It was a fantastic weekend for us. We didn’t have any room available so that’s bigger than any other weekend we normally do at Grand View.”

The Governor’s Fishing Opener was a rewarding weekend for not the tourism industry, but it also showed some of the locals that there’s more to do in the area than they previously had thought.

Crawford says, “We’re very fortunate to live in the Brainerd Lakes Area. We take it for granted sometime so I think it was an eye opener for people that live here. And it’s going to bring a lot of people back because they didn’t really realize it.”

Jackie Ciffra, a Brainerd Angler, says, “I think it did a lot for the tourism. I did the other events like the mountain biking, the racing, stuff around the local area that I didn’t even know we had and I lived here for twenty years. It was great. Good for the tourism industry.”

Miss Minnesota, Rebecca Yeh, says, “Incredibly important I think. Nisswa, the Brainerd Lakes Area is the tourist capital of the state. And so it was great to bring more attention to here and especially my hometown of Nisswa. So it’s kind of an honor to be back and represent that and also as Miss Minnesota.”

Soukup says, “They’re seeing a 30% increase in all their hotels and resorts already for this summer. Now some of them don’t said it’s guaranteed from the Governor’s Fishing Opener. But, a lot of them can’t say that it’s not.”

Next year the Governor will travel to northeastern Minnesota to celebrate the 2015 Opener on Lake Vermilio,. Governor’s office says Minnesota is the number two state for fishing and the opener has become a multimillion dollar event.

By — Lakeland PBS

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