EMILY Welcome to the very first Minno-ette podcast. My name is Emily Manning and I manage the Fredenberg Minno-ette, a sporting goods store and bait shop located about 20 miles north of Duluth Minnesota. I’ll be doing this podcast with my father, one of the new owners of the store.
JASON Hi, I’m her father, one of the new owners of the store. My name is Jason Manning along with my wife, Briana, we are indeed the new owners of the Minno-ette, and have been since December 4th of 2020.
From Fredenberg, Minnesota The Minno-ette Podcast.
EMILY The Fredenberg Minno-ette specializes in providing sporting goods and bait to our customers, however, our store offers a lot more than just that. We are a mini grocery store, a gas station, a propane filling establishment, township fire warden, and a DNR licensed distributor, among many other things. And while we’re located in an area that has a population of just under 1500 citizens, people from all over the nation stop and shop at our business while on their way to enjoy Minnesota’s remarkable and vivacious outdoors. We will be discussing the fishing reports, new combination license regulations, the current open seasons, the bathroom construction, and the minnow tank installation.
JASON And I think folks could probably look forward to an update of sorts every week maybe two weeks just depending on what’s going on…
EMILY Yeah.
JASON And, honestly how much time we have because we’re going to do these somewhat regularly, but we hope to be extremely busy at the old Minno-ette this summer.
EMILY Absolutely. First, let’s talk about some fishing reports… jush uhh…
JASON Well you-re, I think you’re kind of bringing that up because you have a fishing report. I know you’d like to talk about your fishing report. Hey look, as a beaming dad is a proud father who taught his children everything they know up to a point of fishing. You were out fishing the St Louis River here recently and you tied into a big sturgeon. A couple of them actually, but that first one is how big was that thing?
EMILY Um, I’d have to say over 60 for sure because I’m about 65 inches and it was as big as I was.
JASON If you look at the pictures, and we do have a wall of fame at the Minno-ette. It’s, a screen and you post your pictures to Facebook, and you go up on the wall of fame. And you’ll be able to see Emily’s sturgeon on the wall of fame, and that that thing’s every bit of 60 inches if not bigger! And it was an impressive fish, how long did it take you to land?
EMILY It took me about 35 minutes to get it in, thankfully Colby was over my shoulder coaching me and helping me out but yeah it was a battle absolutely.
JASON Watching the video was just, it made me smile ear to ear. One thing though, watching the video I didn’t realize that you children cursed as much as you did.
EMILY Haha.
JASON We can, we can talk about that later. Well, you’re adults, you can do whatever you want! But no that was an impressive fish. Uh, that season is now closed.
EMILY As of April 14th.
JASON Uh, but you know people can still catch, what crappie, sunnies, trout in certain areas, catfish. Yeah.
EMILY So there’s still some fishing to be had before the Minnesota Fishing Opener coming up on Saturday, the 15th. Yeah, so opener begins May 15th and we are having a bunch of events at our store. We are going to be having a fire sale, getting rid of a lot of inventory that we really just don’t have room for any more. So there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s going to be marked down and people are going to be able to get some really good deals. And along with that we will be having Tig’s Smoke and Pig BBQ food truck at our store.
JASON Mmmm…Mmmm…
EMILY I am so looking forward to this.
JASON We do sell Tig’s sauce at the Minno-ette. Tig’s, I think we’re their only retail location right now, unless something has changed. And thrilled, Briana and I have had Tig’s many times over the years. Uh, Troy and company, they’re just really good people but their product is unbelievable. We wouldn’t have them there if it wasn’t that good. It’s as advertised, so if you get a chance to swing by, if nothing else, buy yourself a sandwich from Tig’s.
EMILY Yeah absolutely. We will also be having a bunch of giveaways on opening day. We will be giving away Minno-ette coozies, and bottle openers from the Minnesota Lottery.
JASON It’s going to be a lot of fun, we just think it’d be really neat to give people a gift of something away when they come and buy their bait, tackle, and everything else at the Minno-ette. We’re trying to make the opener, it’s kind of like our super bowl, is what it is.
EMILY Absolutely.
JASON So we want to kick it off in the right way.
EMILY So the Minnesota Lottery is also doing a promotion at our store, where if you buy a five-dollar game you get a free ticket for a one-dollar game.
JASON We have a lot of people stop by and play the lottery, I don’t know how they don’t have the carpal tunnel from scratching away but that’s all right. We’re happy they’re here and we’re happy to hopefully put some money in their pockets; we’ll try to, try to do so during the opener.
EMILY I also wanted to discuss some new combination license regulations, both spouses now need to be present when purchasing their licenses. Nothing we can really do to change that, we’re just kind of abiding the DNR’s rules.
JASON Yeah, when the state says do it, we do it, so please when you’re in there don’t yell at your friendly attendant, they’re just doing what the state is telling them to do. It’s their barbecue we’re only here to eat the ribs, as the old saying goes.
EMILY You may have noticed that the Minno-ette has been a little busier and noisier than usual, and that’s because we have had bathroom construction going on for about two weeks now.
JASON Yeah, two weeks every bit of that, um we are bringing the bathroom to compliance. It was grandfathered in, what that means is it wasn’t necessarily ADA Compliant, and we had an issue with a gentleman about a month, month and a half ago, that wanted to use our restroom and was not able to. And we just, you, and me, and Briana, we just felt awful about it. So he said all right we’re gonna make sure we bring it to compliance, and so that’s what we’re doing. And we’re not looking for a pat on the back or anything like that, it’s it’s just simply the right thing to do. So we’re going to do it, so we we are doing it.
EMILY For sure. And then after the bathroom construction is finished I believe we are getting our brand spank and new metal tanks in!
JASON They are in, they are in storage! We just have to get them in the door, which I don’t know how we’re going to do so because they’re bigger than a tank; but they’re going to look awesome they have windows on the front so the kids can press their little noses and smudge up the glass, and I can tell people go wash the glass and the kids noses. But they they look awesome they’re going to be great we’re going to have the happiest, freshest bait in town.
EMILY That’s right. I’m so excited for new minnow tanks.
JASON And then we have a few other things on the horizon, pretty big things as well with the Minno-ette, and so I guess we would urge you to stay tuned to the Minno-ette podcast for coming details.
EMILY And that’s going to wrap it up for our very first Minno-ette podcast, my name is Emily along with my father Jason…
JASON Yeah.
EMILY And we’ll catch you next time!
This has been episode 1 of The Minno-ette Podcast. Thanks for listening!
