We give a lot of credit to the Chippewa Valley’s rivers for making our home here in northwestern Wisconsin what it is. Heck, we even dedicated an entire issue (and a section of our website) to our waterways.

We might not be the only ones recognizing our watery attributes, either. 

We found a nice little article in the Wisconsin State Journal about a fishing trip with Dave Bakken, an Eau Claire native and avid fisherman, on the Chippewa River – right in downtown EC.

Our man Dave, along with his father Ron Bakken, has built himself a drift boat out of plywood that he uses to fish the waters around town. It’s a pretty cool piece of equipment that is 16 feet long with two identical ends you steer with oars.

If you’re into the more technical aspects of boats, this is a story for you. It’s a pretty amazing process that took the Bakkens from a drift-boat fishing trip near Hayward to fishing on their own handcrafted boat here in Eau Claire.

There’s no place like home for the Bakkens, especially when home is the quiet waters and old-school architecture of the surrounding structures that make the Chippewa River a great spot to fish.

Watch out though, the pictures accompanying this article are taken on the Eau Claire River, not the Chippewa (as stated), just a stone’s throw from the Volume One World Headquarters.

Oh, one cutline on the WSJ’s website even talks about Bakken navigating “rapids.” Perhaps that’s a little dramatic for the water running through downtown Eau Claire, but we’ll take it.