- [Bret] Lake of the Woods and the Rainy River, the walleye capital of the world.

While Minnesota's state fish gets most of the attention up here, there's one resort owner just east of Baudette who turns his focus away from Minnesota gold and has fallen in love with a different fishy treasure.

(bright folk music) Today, we're fishing with The Dutchman himself, Kevin Hinrichs, and his friend, Nick Morgan.

Kevin owns the Royal Dutchman Resort and is an absolute sturgeon fanatic.

It's time to get in the Warship.

- I like to call this the stairway to heaven, boys.

(both chuckling) (gentle country music) We do provide a guided chartered service.

I am a US licensed Coast Guard captain.

I am CPR certified and trained.

I will do everything that I can while I'm out on the water to make sure that you have the best day possible while we're fishing.

We also operate a ice fishing business that operates both on the lake and the river.

(pleasant country music) - [Bret] So how far do you normally go when you take people out?

- So a lot of times I'll tell 'em, "I hope you brought a lot of coffee with you, because we got a long ride ahead of us."

And I usually have a slip that comes straight out like this.

And we'll back out, I'll turn the stern up river and drop anchor.

It can be that simple, but usually on average, most trips, we do not go further than a six mile, three miles either way, and we are able to find what we're looking for as long as they're wanting to chomp.

(pleasant country music) All of that, that, that.

That right there, that, that, they're all over down there.

I don't know how to zoom in on it like some people do.

I'm not very high-tech.

This is the first depth finder that a warship's ever had on it.

(pleasant country music) - [Bret] Like, how much activity do you wait for before you go over there and grab the rod?

- I'm looking for a certain bite myself.

Like, the hardest thing for guests right away is they wanna go after every bite.

- Yeah.

- Which we're not gonna hook 90% of the baits stealers unless they swallow it or the hook gets in their mouth just right.

So I'm gonna sit here until I think it's confidently a decent sturge bite that's going on.

'Cause people will tell you hook sets are free, which they are in some sense, unless you're buying the bait, because you're gonna rip your bait off.

And it can get to be that now, like, you pick it up like that, you got slack in your line, you don't even know if he's biting anymore.

Or they'll say, "Oh, yeah, he's biting."

Then you put it back in, and oh, you got him.

What do we got?

Walleye or sucker fish?

Look like walleye bite.

- It's a walleye.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah.

Walleye!

I get a family in here, we get out there, we get anchored up.

We throw rods out.

In the summertime, I'll put crawler harnesses on with one ounce weights.

And we'll throw, if there's six of us in the boat, I'll throw four sturgeon rods out and I'll throw two of those out.

Now I can tell you I've caught up to 13 different species of fish.

(upbeat rock music) - [Nick] We got one.

(Kevin howling) - [Bret] Fish on.

(upbeat rock music) - [Kevin] You got a good ‘un.

He look like he might be twisted a bit or what?

Tell him to go back to bottom.

Get that one out of the way.

Keep him right over there for a minute if you can.

(gentle rock music) Yeah, I don't know what he is doing.

You must have hit him on the head with a weight or something.

He ain't doing normal sturgeon things.

(gentle rock music) I just gotta get everything back and out of the way.

I don't think this one's gonna run up alongside the boat.

Oh, perfect.

Yeah, and twisted, oh, there he went.

(Kevin chuckles) (gentle country music) That mad cat's getting a workout right now.

(gentle rock music) Hold Nicky poo.

(gentle rock music) Dino, Dino, Dino!

- Whoo!

- You know this is only a half hour show, so... We're not gonna get premature with the net.

I see a lot of guys get premature.

They grab it right away and it's like, you might as well put that thing back for a while.

But we'll get the handle out anyways and get it ready.

And again, as you can see, like I said, on the Warship, we like to stay in the front of the boat and bring the fish.

Try to control it and direct it.

- Don't just smack around down there.

- [Kevin] You think he's ready?

(energetic rock music) He's gonna come in angry, that one, I guess.

- [Bret] That's a good one.

- [Kevin] I hope he's gonna unspin here and probably take off again.

You ready for me?

Drag over.

- Nice.

- Hey yo, woo!

(energetic rock music) - Nothing better than that, is there?

I mean, you're looking at 60 plus pound fish, somewhere in that range.

Usually that mid 20s girth, whatever length they are is about how heavy they are.

Once you start getting to that 29, 30-inch girth, you can start to stack on anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds extra.

(bright acoustic music) - It's very easy fishing.

The amount of gear you need is inexpensive.

It's a lot of fun, and you can literally catch the biggest fish of your life like that, right there.

It's a huge fish.

(bright acoustic music) - We are a mom-and-pop resort.

We have 14 rooms that consist of 5, 2 bedroom, kitchenettes are like 2 bedroom cabins or villas.

And then we have nine, like, motel-hotel rooms.

(bright uplifting music) The Royal Dutchman Resort, I am not sure where it came from.

I believe the Kanaves, the people who owned it for, like, 35 years, they were the ones who named it from H&M Motel to Royal Dutchman Resort.

But I'm not 100% for certain on that, but it has carried on through many, many years.

I was actually thinking about calling it like the Sturgeon Inn, or My Name's Kevin.

I was gonna name it the Kev Inn.

(both laugh) My grandpa really liked that one, but... (uplifting music) I had never been on Facebook before I bought the resort.

(Bret chuckles) One of the first posts I did, I just happened to call myself the Dutchman.

Dutchman here, dock side on the river.

And it kind of has stuck from there.

Everybody knows me as The Dutchman.

Believe it or not, not so much my face, but my voice.

People look at me for a really long time until I say something, and then they're like, "Holy crap, you're the Dutchman," you know?

(bright uplifting music) So the original building, when it was built in 1955, which that building is all two-bedroom kitchenettes now.

But the original building right there was four rooms with a carport.

We're obviously not the oldest resort up here, but to be in that same air, a year class with, like, Adrian's Resort, when they formed and a few other ones that started up dating back to, like, that '50s era, the golden age.

It's pretty cool that it's still standing and still being used to this day.

(tranquil acoustic music) Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah.

That away, Bret.

(howls) - [Nick] I got that drag set pretty tight, so feel like loosening it.

- There he is.

- Don't feel ashamed.

- That's a decent one.

- Yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Heck yeah, I love it.

- [Kevin] Dino!

♪ Do do doo (Kevin howls) - [Bret] Oh, he's not too happy with me.

- [Kevin] The Warship did do battle with the trailer, so it has a dented deflector up there.

So we're just gonna try to keep it away from, it battles all kinds of things Dan.

How's that feel?

- Pretty good.

- Yeah.

- So strong.

There's so much fun.

- Yeah, yeah.

- He's come up a couple of times and now just gone right back down.

- [Kevin] He's got swirls back there.

- I think he's getting pretty close here.

- [Kevin] Okay.

(dramatic symphonic music) A little bit closer.

- Are you set?

- That perfect?

- Isn't it?

- Yeah!

- Yeah!

- Woo!

(both howling) (inspiring music) - There you go, bud.

There you go.

Nice.

- Yeah.

- This is what the Rainy River is really becoming known for.

I mean, obviously, it's still a great walleye fishery and smallmouth, pike.

There's a lot of species of fish that you can catch in here, but the sturgeon.

- That's walleye there.

- That are in this river are amazing.

It's so much fun and so easy to do.

(inspiring music) - I'll put it like this, when the tug is your drug, the sturgeon is the ultimate fix at the end of the day.

Not to say that I don't love my walleyes, it's just if you're gonna make me choose between one, it's gonna be the sturgeon.

(inspiring music) I knew I was gonna live up here someday.

I just didn't know when or how.

Just the overall size of the lake, I guess, when I saw it the first time.

it puts you into perspective and makes you realize how small we are as human beings.

(inspiring music) As a business owner, you always look, how can I utilize every aspect of my business to possibly make as much money as you can?

And that community room can be looked at as, sometimes in some people's eyes as a wasted opportunity.

Can we turn this into a room, until you see a group of guys, or say, a dad with his kids on an ice fishing trip.

They come in and they put the casserole that mom prepared for them at home, that they brought up with them.

He stuffs it in the oven and you're sitting in there, they're having a good, old time eating and hanging out and chilling, talking about how the day was.

And when he talks to you, he says, you know, I truly appreciate that you guys got this community room here, because trying to feed four kids, going out to eat plus going on a fishing trip, this just wouldn't be doable at all.

My dedicated, devoted mission is to make sure that everybody gets the opportunity to experience Lake of the Woods the way that I did.

We do not charge for kids to stay or fish, because I do not want money to be the reason that they don't get the opportunity to experience Lake of the Woods.

And I mean, in fishing in general.

(bright inspiring music) - [Bret] Yeah, there we go.

(Kevin howls) - [Kevin] Dino, Dino!

♪ Do do doo Come on Dan!

Figure out which way he's down, there, you figured it out.

- There he goes.

- Nope.

- Keeps you trying to go up.

(bright symphonic music) - [Kevin] If he could get off that pack, he'd probably take off, but he just can't.

- [Kevin] All right, bring him over here.

- All right.

- Yeah!

- Nice.

What a fish.

How cool is it we get to have these in Minnesota.

I mean, it's an absolute dinosaur, just a beast of a fish.

Strong, mad at the world.

Easy to fish for, so much fun.

(upbeat symphonic music) - Like I was telling you, I look at a sturgeon fisherman as like a boxer.

He's looking for that opponent that he can't beat, that one that you're scared of, you know, and it's out here.

It's waiting for us, I'm gonna find it.

(tranquil music)