Gov. Dayton prepares for debut fishing opener
Gov. Mark Dayton prepared for this weekend's start of the fishing season by purchasing his license Wednesday at the Department of Natural Resources headquarters in St. Paul.
Dayton will host his first governor's fishing opener near Grand Rapids. He told reporters that he plans to be on the water at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Dayton said he will be away from the Capitol for about 24 hours, but said he's not concerned about missing valuable end-of-session negotiation time with legislative leaders.
"I'll be up north, but I'll certainly be within reach," Dayton said. "I'll bring my cell phone on the boat, and if somebody wants to offer final resolution to the budget in between hauling in walleyes, I think I'll be able to handle that."
Dayton said he's expecting to see Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove and House Majority Leader Matt Dean of Dellwood at the opener. He joked that they could tie their boats together to talk about the budget while fishing.
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