CROSSLAKE, Minn. — In its 77 years, the Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener was never in Crosslake on the Whitefish Chain, specifically Cross Lake, until this year.
Requirements to host the event have changed since it was last held in the lakes area in 2014 in Nisswa on a much larger scale than in recent years.
Even so, it was a surprise that Crosslake was chosen as the host community this year.
“Crosslake has not applied in at least the past 15 years; however, the Brainerd and Nisswa chambers hosted the event in 2014,” Cindy Myogeto, Crosslake Chamber director, said via email.
“Back then the requirements included hotel and convention space that were beyond Crosslake’s capacity, making Grand View (Lodge) the natural choice as the primary venue. Post-pandemic, the scale of the event has shifted,” Myogeto said.
During this year’s media row event on Friday, May 9, at Manhattan Beach Lodge, state and local leaders met with media outlets for 10 minutes each. Nicole Lalum, industry relations manager with Explore Minnesota Tourism, shared with the Echo Journal how Crosslake was chosen this year, and how the Governor’s Fishing Opener has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why Crosslake?
Communities still apply to host the Governor’s Fishing Opener; however, this year’s applicants didn’t make the cut for various reasons, Lalum said.
“So the DNR and Explore Minnesota met, talked with a few different communities around the state and came up with a few options, Crosslake being one of those options,” she said.
They nominated a couple communities, and the governor’s office chose Crosslake.
New process
When it was last in the lakes area, the event operated under an older process.
“And to be honest, it was a bit heavy of a lift for a community to do. There were a lot of required things,” Lalum said.
When the event was hosted at Breezy Point Resort on Pelican Lake and the Breezy Point and Pequot Lakes communities in 2001 and 2008, and at Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake and Nisswa in 2014, co-chairs spearheaded the planning with the chambers and subcommittees.
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“And so what we’ve done is we’ve taken the event to its basic (form) to accomplish what we want it to,” Lalum said. “We want to tell the stories. We want to celebrate fishing. We want to encourage visitors. We want to share angling information.
“So what do we need to do that?” she asked. “We have this (media row) event. We do some tours, we go fishing, we have shore lunch.
“A host community now can choose to do a golf tournament. They’re not required to do a golf tournament. They can do a community picnic. They’re not required to do a community picnic,” she said. “So we’ve taken it to its basic core elements and then made it flexible for a community to really show who they are.”
The event used to be so big that only a few communities could handle it.
“We’ve made it more open to more communities across the state,” Lalum said, noting they’re really trying to explore all corners of the state.
“That’s another one of the reasons we made it smaller — so we could go more places, but still tell as many stories as we can,” she said..
Criteria to be a host community include having space to host events, such as Manhattan Beach Lodge for the media row event.
“You have to have lakes for fishing and you have to be able to find enough boat hosts who will volunteer to take guests out as well,” Lalum said. “You have to have a caterer or a civic organization that’ll do a shore lunch for you.”
She said communities that applied but didn’t qualify this year could still host in the future.
“It’s just maybe they weren’t ready this time,” Lalum said.
The 2026 application process closed May 2, and those applications are currently being vetted. Organizers hope to announce next year’s Governor’s Fishing Opener host community in June.
“Because Crosslake is hosting this year, it will likely place Crosslake outside consideration for at least another decade, which is unfortunate,” Myogeto said.
Economic impact
A potential boost in the local economy comes after hosting a Governor’s Fishing Opener, or after the media outlets that attend share the host community’s stories, Lalum said.
“The ripple of the media is really where the economic impact comes in,” she said. “So the stories that get told from the folks who are attending the event has that spread.”
As an example, she said Lake City hosted last year’s Governor’s Fishing Opener, and that community went on to have one of its best summers ever for tourism.
“They also made a real concerted effort to try and tell stories that would entice families to come because that wasn’t a demographic that they saw. They had a lot of empty nesters that would come to Lake City, and so they saw more families last summer,” Lalum said.
The Governor’s Fishing Opener began in 1948 and today promotes Minnesota’s $4.4 billion fishing industry and kicks off the summer tourism season.
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