- [Bret] In recent years, more and more women are participating in the outdoors.

As those numbers continue to grow, more and more opportunities to cater to those women are becoming available.

(gentle music) Welcome to "Prairie Sportsman."

I'm Bret Amundson.

We're up here at the Northwest angle .. and today, we're going to introduce somebody to this unique area who's made it her mission to help women be more successful in the outdoors.

- Oh, hi.

You are just hitting me.

I'm Jennifer Pudenz, owner and editor of "Adventuress" Magazine.

"Adventuress" is actually the only women's hunting and fishing magazine and I started about 10 years ago.

First digitally and then a high quality print magazine and it's all about giving credit to experienced women and also sharing that with other women.

(gentle music) - So this is your first time to Lake of the Woods?

- It is.

Well, so I'm originally from southern Iowa and I just moved to Minnesota like four years ago and so I just hadn't made it up this far yet, so it's been a bucket list trip for me though.

- Not only did you get to come to the Lake of the Woods, but your first trip coming up to the angle is pretty neat.

- [Jennifer] Yes.

- [Bret] There you go.

Nice.

- There's another one there though.

Yeah, slinking on the bottom.

- [Bret] Be perch.

Be perch.

- It's tiny.

(Bret laughs) - [Bret] That's a sauger.

- [Jennifer] Oh man.

- No, that's Tiny.

(Jennifer laughs) - [Bret] Oh boy.

- But I got him.

Oh, dead stick.

Sure did.

- [Bret] Did it hit the dead stick?

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) (rod whirring) - [Bret] Nice.

- Hey.

Oops.

Sweet.

- [Bret] Well, there's a nice wa - Awesome.

- [Bret] Hey.

- Yeah!

- [Bret] On the board.

- On the dead stick.

- [Bret] Well Jen, first time at the Northwest Angle.

First time in a bomber and- - Yes.

- [Bret] First walleye of the tr - Nice healthy walleye.

- [Bret] Congratulations.

- Thank you.

(gentle music) So ever since I was little, I loved hunting and fishing magazines and always loved the print magazines, and so that was something kind of which is how my mind works too.

I think like a magazine, I feel like, and just always have had that love for print.

I went to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and went for journalism and print design emphasis and also art emphasis.

(gentle acoustic music) - [Bret] He's chasing the minnow around.

There's two of them chasing the same minnow around.

- Sweet.

- [Bret] There's fish all over down there right now.

- Yeah.

There's another one right behind that, isn't there?

(rod whirring) - [Bret] Nice.

- Oh, it's a big perch!

- [Bret] Oh, look at the perch.

Yes.

- Oh, that's, oh yeah!

(both laughing) - [Bret] That's awesome.

- Sweet.

That's awesome.

- [Bret] That's a big perch.

Jeez!

- Yes.

- When we fished up here last time filming for "Prairie Sportsman," we caught one or two perch I think and a burbot and some multispecies.

But the perch fishing this year, Jesse, has been- - Has been fantastic.

- Been crazy.

- It's been better than the last f.. - And you think that's because maybe there wasn't as much pressure up here last year that the fish had a little bit of a break?

- Yes.

- And you know, all over the region, you know, we didn't have as cold of a winter or whatever.

We had some different conditions, so maybe a few people didn't ice fish as much last year.

That allows these fish to grow and, you know, grow in numbers, grow in size.

And we caught one, Jennifer caught one in our house that literally looked like a rectangle.

- [Jesse] Yeah.

- Like it was huge.

And I looked at it and I said, "What is that?"

She was measuring, I said, "What was that?

Is that 14?"

And she said, "12 and a half."

Oh yeah, he's cruising with it.

- [Jennifer] Oh yeah.

Good.

- [Bret] Cruising.

- [Jennifer] Good, good.

- [Bret] Oh.

I think he just spit it.

- [Jennifer] He did?

- Sure look like it.

Unless there's two of them.

Oh, there's a big mark coming in.

- [Jennifer] Okay, I'm going to take this.

- Okay.

- [Jennifer] I think.

(rod whirring) - Nice.

You got him.

Oh, I'm going to catch, this is a nice fish.

- Oh, this is a nicer fish.

- Is it?

- What is going on actually?

It's really weird.

- Oh!

Oh.

- What is going on?

- Mine just missed.

He's swimming around with it.

He might be wrapped in- - Your bobber's going too.

- Oh, I got one.

We doubled on nice fish here.

- Okay.

Oh, jumbo!

- Nice.

Oh, look at that one.

- Is yours a jumbo?

- Probably.

This is a nice fish.

(Jennifer laughing) - I hope you do too.

This is huge.

- Oh, mine's a nice walleye.

- Oh, is it?

- Yeah.

- Do you need help?

- Not sure yet.

I got to get him up the hole here.

There we go.

- Oh, good job.

- Nice.

Oh yeah.

(Jennifer laughs) Whoo!

(Bret laughs) Lake in the Woods.

- That is an awesome double.

- Cheers.

- Sweet.

Cheers.

- Alright.

- Back in the day when I started with the idea, there wasn't a women's hunting and fishing magazine at all that had been done before really.

And so that was just something I really wanted to create.

I just think it's really important that women have something like that for media for them and specifically created for women and giving them credit and showing how we do things differently and stuff like that.

I just think it's really important to have that.

Just being a woman in the outdoors myself, like I know I have to do things differently than guys do for a lot of things.

And also I think women learn from other women easier.

And also like, you know, our gear and everything like that is different, so I think it's just a great way to learn from another woman as well as it helps to just inspire and, you know, when you see other women doing things in the outdoors, I think it helps inspire them and also give great role models for youth.

- Nice job.

(Jennifer laughs) - Nope.

It's a perch.

- Nice.

- Sweet.

- Oh, look at that perch.

(gentle acoustic music) I want you to just kind of explain why you ended up catching that fish because right before that, we were hooked into a pike and actually both of us caught this pike, like bit her dead stick, swam over, bit my dead stick, wrapped all our lines up, all four lines.

We had a bit of a mess, but you had a backup.

- Yeah, so with us all taken out here with lines, I had a backup dead stick that I put down.

So at least, we had something if a fish came in, and you know, we're still fishing and here that 20-inch walleye took that backup dead stick while we were otherwise out of commission.

So that was an awesome catch.

(laughs) - That was a great idea.

- It kind of looked like a walleye, didn't it?

Oh, nice walleye.

- [Bret] Nice.

- Sweet.

- It looked like a big mark on the line.

- It did look like a good walleye on there.

- [Bret] What's it doing down there?

- Doing yoga.

(laughs) Oh, beauty.

That was awesome.

- [Bret] That's quite the sequence.

It's a good thing you got a backup.. - [Jennifer] Yep.

- [Bret] I mean- - I really, really like having tha.. because then, otherwise, I wouldn't have been under for this.

- [Bret] Right.

Nice.

- What a beautiful walleye.

When I was growing up, I didn't have any, you know, women to look up to in the outdoor industry and follow like that, so that's a really big deal to me that other people have that.

Also I keep the magazine really clean and so, you know, families read it together, which is amazing to hear about that.

- [Bret] And even some guys.

- Yes.

So I always want things to be very e.. and educational, and so I have guys that read the whole magazine that say, you know, they learn something from every issue.

- [Bret] Jen's efforts to help aren't limited to the magazine.

Her faith has inspired her to organize events that bring women into the outdoors.

- Four years ago or so, I moved to Hibbing, Minnesota and got involved in Chisholm Baptist Church and they weren't doing like a ministry or anything for the outdoors.

And well, I guess I should say there was one for men, a fishing trip for men and there was nothing for women.

So I started a women's outdoor ministry at first and then that's expanded and grown to have events for everybody with, you know, kids and adults, as well as to have co-ed groups and stuff like that.

So we've done everything from ice fishing and maple syrup making and snowshoeing and cross country skiing to kayak fishing down a river and- - [Bret] Now maybe a trip to the Northwest angle.

(Jennifer laughs) - That'd be awesome.

Oh, I've got one staring at something.

- Oh yeah.

Get him.

- Uh, he left.

Oh, he left.

What's he doing?

- Oh, he's coming back to eat one of the d.. Yeah, your bobber's going down over there.

- Not as much as he left.

No, he doesn't have me.

- Oh, he's spooking.

Oh, he just swiped that.

- He took- - Swiped that- - Is it a pike?

- Oh.

- You got it?

- I missed him.

He's still coming back though.

There, I got him.

- Did you really?

- Yep.

- Good.

- This one's a little bigger now.

Oh yeah.

- Dude, go down.

- It doesn't take much to be bigger than the last one.

- That's looking decent.

- That's a tullibee.

- Oh, a tullibee.

That's why he was acting so different.

Hey, we can keep them.

- Yeah, we can.

(Bret grunting) (Jennifer laughs) I mean, they're like a trout.

They're so strong.

(both laughing) Okay, bud.

They're slippery.

There we go.

Excuse you.

These fish are a lot of fun and they're actually really good to eat.

A couple of years ago, we filmed an episode where we netted tullibees and smoked them.

They're delicious, you can find that on the "Prairie Sportsman" YouTube channel.

Fun fight.

They're fun fish to catch.

(gentle music) - So the magazine, I use it in a format of like a lot .. and so there's just a lot of learning with that and so it has a hunting and fishing base, but it also includes another article each issue that has something about the outdoors related.

So that could be, you know, like snowmobiling or four-wheeling or snowshoeing, something like that.

Learning that technique, I think it's better when we learn from other women usually actually, I think women learn better from women and- - I've taught you how to catch all these fish today.

(Jennifer laughs) - What?

- [Bret] What just happened?

- So I just doubled.

This one hammered my rattle, and then I looked over and my bobber was gone on the dead stick.

(laughs) So that's pretty amazing double there.

- [Bret] Awesome.

(gentle music) - [Jennifer] Oh, good.

Yes.

- [Bret] Got them.

- [Jennifer] Yes.

Good job.

- [Bret] I'm the big rattle bait.

- [Jennifer] Sweet.

- There we go, just about 5:00, and we're being a little picky on keeper walleyes.

I don't know, this guy's borderline.

I think we're going to have them fry up some of our fish again tonight at Flag Island.

They have a lot of good food in there actually.

- [Jennifer] Yeah.

- Keep your fish to take home or have them fry up or do a fish fry one night or have burgers or some of their other entrees there.

The food is really good.

But I wouldn't mind doing fish again tonight.

- No, it was excellent.

Everything's been excellent at the restaurant.

- This guy looks delicious.

(Jennifer laughs) So while dealing with that fish, I just realized my bobber and my dead stick is down.

I don't know if there's a fish there or not, but we're about to find out.

- [Jennifer] I think there's going to be.

- There's a fish there.

- Yes.

(Bret laughs) - So I get to double up (Jennifer laughs) at the end here.

See what it looks like.

I don't think it's going to be any bigger than the last one.

- Oh, okay.

- About the same size.

Maybe a little smaller- - Awesome double.

- Than the last one.

Too bad it's not a sauger.

We got room for a couple more saugers, but threw a lot of saugers back.

This guy's going back.

That's a heck of a good time.

- Yes.

- Good day.

- That was a good day of fun.

- Let's go eat.

The outdoors are for everyone, and all of Minnesota's great places make it easy for people like Jen to fulfill her mission.