You’ll find more than just fishing celebrities in this list. One can make a significant impact
on the lives of many without ever being well known. It is important to honor all of
those who had a great influence on the great sport of fishing, whether famous or not.
Corporate advances tend to be much more visible to us. For it’s their products that
shape the evolution of the sport of fishing.

Talk fishing and guiding in the Alexandria lakes area, and one legendary name rates frequent mention: LeRoy Ras. LeRoy’s guiding career, from the mid-1960s and onward for almost 50 years, has drawn clients from across Minnesota and from multiple states, including Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas. Over the years his species balance has been “about 50-50 bass and walleye, with gators as by-catch.”

How would a native of Hancock, a few miles southeast of Morris, Minn., get so deep into fishing? LeRoy kid-fished, especially with an uncle, on western-Minnesota lakes like Minnewaska and Pomme de Terre. In 1966, soon after his employment as an Alexandria elementary school teacher, veteran Alexandria guide Harry Bemo asked fishing-nut LeRoy Ras to take a couple Bemo customers bass-fishing. Young LeRoy saw great opportunity in “getting paid for doing what I love!”

LeRoy’s main guiding area included many fish-rich lakes within a 60-mile radius around Alexandria. He and his clients fished mainly walleyes in May-June and September-October, and more bass in June, July, and August. He stressed what he calls “a good experience” — lots of catch-and-release and keeping “enough for a meal.” A user of artificial baits when possible, LeRoy stressed the release ethic before it became a popular voluntary and law-required conservation practice in Minnesota.

Given his lifetime of fishing and an ongoing long guiding career, LeRoy Ras has witnessed and participated in the sport’s revolutions and evolutions of boats, motors, electronics, and fishing-related products. His first guiding boat, in the 1960s, was a second-hand wooden rowboat with a 5-hp Johnson outboard. Then came a Crestliner aluminum 16-footer and 6-hp Evinrude. Up the road he’d progress through a list of Lund and Ranger boats to his present 175 Angler and 75-horse Mercury 4-stroke.

Over the years, guiding time won out over tournament time, although LeRoy’s prowess in early tournaments helped gain guide trips. He started fishing tournaments back when the Fergus Bassmasters began their series. Early wins spurred more entries—and good results—in walleye and bass contests. LeRoy jokes, “Hey, $1,000 for a few pounds of fish was a godsend for a teacher clearing less than $400 per month.” He even landed for Al Skaar the winning fish in a Muskies, Inc. contest on Lake Winnibigoshish. As the number of tournaments rapidly expanded in the 1990s, LeRoy wound down competitive fishing in favor of serving his guiding clients.

LeRoy’s promotional and product-testing work included associations with Lindy/Little Joe, Pure Fishing, Lund, and Northland Fishing Tackle. For several years he tested various Berkley products, like Power Bait and Gulp. As flasher-type depthfinders and other angling electronics entered the angling world, LeRoy Ras had a natural interest. His introduction to sonar had come in the U. S. Navy (1957-1961) while serving as a sonarman on the USS Grenadier (SS525). Marv Koep, of Marv Koep’s Nisswa Bait Shop and Nisswa Guides League fame, loaned LeRoy a Lowrance Lo-K-Tor and introduced him to Ron Lindner, who took him on a fishing trip and “learning experience.”

These early Koep and Lindner connections, along with getting paid for taking a couple Harry Bemo customers fishing, helped inspire the long and progressive fishing career of Minnesota Legend LeRoy Ras.