July 15, 2025
By In-Fisherman Staff
Part 8 of the The Greatest Fishing Story Ever Told. Gary Roach, known as “Mr. Walleye”, is one of the most recognized walleye anglers in history. Mr. Walleye sits down with In-Fisherman Storyline host Thomas Allen to tell some stories and discuss his rise to walleye fame in the Brainerd Lakes Area. The historical lookback is not only informative, but entertaining and enlightening. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did!
Truncated transcript:
00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:17.880: We're listening to In-Fisherman Storyline, North America's top voice in multi-species freshwater angling. Here is your host, Thomas Allen.
00:00:17.840 --> 00:00:44.320: Mr. Gary Roach is our guest today on this very special edition of In-Fisherman Storyline. We're going to-- we don't have a time limit, Gary, so don't feel like you can't tell me stories. But if you're like-- if we're into three hours, we may do a part two in a week or something like that. Well, you got to come out to the house, then you go for another three, four hours. Let's do it. I have a portable kit. We could do that. You got to do it. We might have to.
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00:00:44.320 --> 00:01:13.600: Well, Gary has been a long time In-Fisherman contributor. And I really want to hear your story and your words. And I want to go way back. So let's start. Are you born and raised this part of Minnesota? I'm about-- I'm about 80 acres next to where I was born and the 40 acres. Get lucky enough, my wife found an ad in the paper of a land for sale. And oh my god, it was right next to where I was born and raised.
00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:36.640: So-- and we paid a whopping $2,300 for 80 acres. Can you believe it? Boy, things have changed. How much? $2,800? $2,300. You can't even buy an acre for that nowadays. Oh, no. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, two acres and 2 and 1/2 acres up and on Highway 11. It just went for $62,000. Wow, that's something else. Crazy.
00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:51.000: It's crazy, but you're in the heart of amazing fishing. I've actually spent some time, quite a bit of time, fishing out your way. But obviously, the Mission Lake area, the Horseshoe Lake area, you're not too far from Cross Lake. Talk a little bit about how that fishery impacted you.
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00:01:51.000 --> 00:02:21.400: Well, I was born right on the shores of Mission Lake. They found me floating under the dock, I think it was. I don't know where I was at. And anyway, my dad bought a log cabin, 40 acres for $500. I remember that. My mom raised eight kids. And then those were tough days. We had just a fact--Kamaltra, I'll show you the cabin that we lived in. Oh, you still have? It was just a one-room cabin and a fireplace and a barrel stove.
00:02:21.400 -->00:02:53.280: And my dad worked at the mines in Crosby Mines as a mechanic for a diesel mechanic for 30-some years and retired. Of course, I was born there and went to school there. And then I joined the Navy and spent four years in the Navy. I kind of floated around the Pacific out there all the way to Hong Kong on an aircraft carrier. Really? And came home, yeah. Do you remember which boat? Which one was it? The CBA-31, the Bonhomme Richard. It's all tore apart and gone now. OK.
00:02:53.280 --> 00:03:22.120: And those big old carriers. But that was one of the first angle decks. The old ones were-- you'd fly straight ahead and put the planes this way. Well, this one here, you'd fly and hit the deck. And then you wouldn't have to worry about crashing up into the other airplanes. And that was the first angle deck. And I run a squadron, a CBA-31, a CBA--excuse me, carrier group 19. And we had like little FJ Fannums….
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