2026-09-22 · Cook / Lake Vermilion (St. Louis County) — Whispering Winds Resort
A Mountain Dew on the Banner — Vermilion Kept the Muskies Coming
In early July 2026, Hometown Hero Outdoors ran its fourth Muskie Madness at Whispering Winds on Lake Vermilion — the first without guide Jeremy Johnson — bringing 15 veterans and first responders onto the water with volunteer guides who showed up anyway.
Some Minnesota fishing stories are about a five-inch weed walleye that somehow became the dinner-table legend. This one’s about a muskie retreat that almost didn’t feel possible — and a dad who slipped a bottle of Mountain Dew into the last group photo so the guy who started the whole thing still had a seat.
In early July 2026, Hometown Hero Outdoors came back to Whispering Winds Resort on Lake Vermilion for Muskie Madness, the fourth year of pairing volunteer muskie guides with military veterans, law enforcement, firefighters, and other first responders. It was the first time without Jeremy Johnson, the longtime guide and resort figure whose vision helped build the retreat — and who had hosted it free during the resort’s busiest season. Johnson died in a May collision on Vermilion. His boat sat in the driveway anyway. Everybody walked past it. (The Timberjay; Hometown Hero Outdoors)
Aaron Schiller of Hometown Hero Outdoors MN said you almost didn’t want that boat there at first — then, by week’s end, remembering hurt less than pretending nothing was missing. Guides who’d spent years on the water with Johnson came back even when their guts said stay home. Larry Bauman said he’d never guided until Jeremy talked him into it; Donnie Manz admitted he’d tried every excuse not to show. James Madigan spent weeks wondering the same thing. They showed up for the men in the boats, which is exactly where Johnson always pointed the spotlight. (Timberjay)
Over two trips, fifteen veterans and first responders got days on one of Minnesota’s toughest muskie waters. Hometown Hero Outdoors reported every participant caught fish; eleven of the fifteen landed muskies. The week’s tally: twenty muskies, twelve northern pike, one walleye, one bass. Manz said four first-time muskies came off his boat alone. One seventy-five-year-old participant finally checked the dream box — two muskies in a single evening after decades of hoping — and, per Manz, said he could die a happy man tomorrow. That’s not a tournament leaderboard. That’s a boat conversation wearing fishing clothes. (Hometown Hero Outdoors; Timberjay)
Jeremy’s parents, Ron and Margaret Johnson, kept the resort open to the retreat. Ron said he didn’t want to cancel any of the season — Jeremy would have wanted it no matter what. Before the last dock photo, Ron ducked into a shed and came back with a bottle of Mountain Dew. Bauman had joked you never saw Jeremy without a cigarette or a Mountain Dew. In the picture, Ron held one corner of the Hometown Hero Outdoors banner. The bottle held the other. (Timberjay)
Campfire takeaway: the loudest Vermilion story that week wasn’t a fifty-inch measurement. It was volunteer guides who almost stayed home, fifteen veterans and first responders who got real casts and real talk on Lake Vermilion, and a Mountain Dew in the corner of a banner photo — proof that a muskie retreat can still run when the guy who believed in it most isn’t at the dock anymore.