Jumpin' Jehosphaphat!  You won't believe what I saw at Bucksnort!  I saw jumpin' trout who had swum up stream and were trying to jump up and over a cement dam, placed in their way by human hands long ago.
The urge for the trout to get upstream is apparently so strong that they slam themselves into cement, one after the other, some of them over and over again, until they realize they've hit the end of their road.  I mean the end of their stream. 
Now if you're looking on your maps for Bucksnort, you might just find it along the Cannon River, about 90 minutes south of Victoria.  It's not a main drag unless you're turkey hunting, which is what Allan does every spring in this area so he became familiar with Bucksnort and he stopped to show me his old haunting hunting grounds on our way to Lanesboro about ten days ago.
Bucksnort (yes, it's a weird name) is the site of an old mill, long gone, where the rushing waters of the Cannon River ground wheat into flour for the early Minnesota settlers.  The millers left the dam behind, much to the consternation of the trout. 
On this very hot Thursday afternoon, however, the rushing water over the dam brought coolness to the air and the mind.  I kept thinking of Huckleberry Finn.  It's good to think of Huckleberry once in a while, versus Natalee Holloway or the London Bombers.
And then when I got back home I got to think about hiding the fishhook in the Gazette, not exactly a mindless task but certainly not daunting, or haunting, but it could lead you to hunting.
Winner of the recent drawing is Lynn Olson of Victoria.  Those whose names were placed in the minnow bucket along with Lynn found the fishhook hidden on page 9 in the "a" of the Victoria House logo.  Congratulations, Lynn.  Your $10 prize will be on its way to you shortly.
There's another fishhook hidden in this issue of the Gazette.  If you're breathing, you're allowed to enter the contest/drawing.  If you find the fishhook, dropper line to Box 387, Victoria, MN 55386 telling of its location and sinker in the mail.  Twon't hurt ya much for tryin'.  It's not like swimming upstream and banging your body against a cement wall.  It's more like going with the flow until a trout jumps into your swimming trunks.