BAUDETTE, MINN. – Like the ancient fish at the center of his life, Kevin Hinrichs is an old soul with a lot of fight.
Along with his wife, Jenn, they broke away from familiar surroundings in southern Minnesota to buy a small resort on the Rainy River. As the world was beset by COVID-19, the Hinrichses ventured out to capitalize on the Upper Midwest's enduring passion for fishing.
But instead of focusing on walleyes, they've transformed the Royal Dutchman Resort into "the most sturgeony" vacation spot connected to Lake of the Woods. Since taking over the 1950s-era roadside resort in October 2020, they've overcome tough challenges to do more than just tread water. As Minnesota's main sturgeon season opens this weekend,business at the resort is clicking and the two former farm kids are feeling blessed for the acceptance they've received from the local community.
"I'd do all this for free if I could," Jenn said.
"I'm not going to come up here just to run a business," Kevin said. "Community is first."
Maggie Flaten, a partner at the Outdoors Again fishing and hunting store in Baudette, shook her head and smiled when asked about the Hinrichs.
"Good people," Flaten said. "They really work their tails off and he's very passionate about his sturgeon."
So much so that the Baudette area fisheries staff at the Department of Natural Resources named Hinrichs to its Lake of the Woods Fisheries Input Group. Members currently are helping to form the DNR's next management plan for the lake.
The Dutchman
Partly because Kevin and Jenn have an appreciation for local history, they couldn't bring themselves to change the name of the resort. By Kevin's doing, they are now widely known as Dutchman and Duchess, or "the royal family of the Rainy River."
"Dutchman here!" he croons or bellows into the microphone to start his many Facebook videos.
His alter ego is a quote machine — always dishing out quips of homespun wit and wisdom. The Dutchman is always upbeat, many times humorous and often speaks from the heart. Some samples:
- "You have to see the worst of it before you can see the best of it."
- "People say a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. For me, a bad day of fishing is just a bad day."
- "Fear is good for keeping us alive, but it's bad if it keeps us from taking chances and doing stuff."
- "It's technically not spring until the Dutchman's dock gets washed down the river."
- "Running a resort is like farming because there's always work. But the cows are people and people can express themselves."
- "Sometimes I feel like Barbara Walters with a fishing pole. People let their guard down and I end up knowing all about 'em by the end of the day."
"Hoooowl!!!"
The Dutchman enjoys nicknames and metaphors. His guide boat is the "warship," the big pontoon where he greets guests by welcoming them to his "pack of wolves" or "biker gang." Both expressions are terms of endearment for the unity and camaraderie that it takes to catch a "dino."
When any angler on his boat gets hooked up with a sturgeon, the Dutchman looks skyward and lets out a howl. The others reel up, cheer on the lucky group member and lend a hand when needed. A big fish can take 45 minutes or more to haul in. The Dutchman's personal best catch was 5 feet, 8 inches and the largest sturgeon he's helped hoist onto the warship was a half-inch shy of 6 feet — caught and released by a couple on their honeymoon.
"I always tell them, 'Welcome to the pack,'" he said. "We are a band of brothers."
One of his standbys when guiding a new group is to compare his crew of hopeful sturgeon hunters to any random boatload of walleye enthusiasts. The difference, he said, is that a big walleye catch stirs quiet jealousy inside the boat. But when your mate on the warship is reeling in a "dino" or a "beast," "it's kind of like you're part of a biker gang.
"It's a war. You're a team. It's a team catch," he says. "The pack is strong and getting stronger."
The Dutchman shows his visitors great respect for the abundant, naturally reproducing population of lake sturgeon in the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods. It's to the point where he lowers his tone of voice when describing them.
The 4- and 5-footers that anglers are catching with frequency today are "children of the '70s" that were saved from over-harvest and from horrible pollution solved by the Clean Water Act. "Every part of this fish is about survival," he said. "Even when we pushed them to the brink of extinction, they made it through."
Battle scars
Now in their mid-30s, Kevin and Jenn were happily unmarried when they sold their home in Zumbrota for a gain. The motivation to tie the knot came from a banker who said a marriage certificate would save them legal costs, time and paperwork in purchasing the resort.
Not long after they moved north with their two children (Jeffrey, 11, and Vera, 12), the resort's water well failed. Later, Kevin was sidelined for two weeks with kidney stones. It was the dead of winter and Jenn was forced to manage the resort's 10 ice shanties on Lake of the Woods. She plowed snow and towed the houses to new locations, as needed.
"The Duchess is the heartbeat, she's the motor," Kevin said. "She's the hardest-working woman I've ever met in my life."
Jenn laughs about it now, but she had a serious fall from the resort's dock one spring that submerged her in the cold, rushing river without a life jacket.
"I hung on for dear life," she said. "It took me a year to recover from the bruising."
With help from new friends, the Hinrichses are in it for the long haul and are looking forward to the "keep season," when license holders are allowed to tag and keep one sturgeon between now and the end of September. The overwhelming majority of Rainy River anglers release every sturgeon they catch, but Hinrichs thinks the fishery could easily support more harvest. Meanwhile, he keeps promoting and spreading his philosophies.
"I was a walleye fisherman, but sturgeon carried me away," Hinrichs said. "It's the raw power. Nothing fights like a dino. After you think you've won the battle, a whole new battle begins."
