Photo by Katie Friedman

Rassat Outdoor Group President Joe Rassat, Office Manager Bridget Wall and Sales Manager Andy Segner take pride in providing quality service to all channels of business, regardless of size.

shows in the spring, plus a few more in winter for ice fishing.

“The coolest thing is I get to travel all over the world and still come

home,” he said. “My whole life, I never left Maple Lake.

I love being here because it’s where I’m from. It’s a good town. I wouldn’t stay it if it wasn’t.”

Raised in Maple Lake by Muriel and the late Clarence Rassat, Joe said,

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“Dad taught me about different kinds of business deals and took me along to auctions.

I learned the value of many different things. Mom is the strongest person I have ever met.” His brothers, Dan and Ron, he said, taught him the joys of fishing. A 1984 graduate of Maple Lake High School, Rassat has also served for 24 years as a Maple Lake firefighter.

Will work for fun The fishing business has

also brought “a lot of interesting people” into his orbit, Rassat said.

“I’ve taken a lot of major league baseball players fishing,” he said. “I taught Kirby Puckett how to fish. I met him at

Berkeley Day at the Dome in 1988, and he’d never been fishing in his life.”

Rassat still wets the occasional line with Dave Winfield, Kurt Gibson and Kent Hrbek, who recently delighted local anglers with a surprise appearance at the Catch 4 Colbenson Ice Fishing Tournament on Clearwater Lake.

The sole owner of Rassat Outdoor Group, Rassat also shares business enterprises Annandale Mini-Storage and ML Properties with Tom Neu, a hunting and fishing buddy for the past 30 years.

And he’s quick to point out that Rassat Outdoor Group’s success is due not to one person, but to a talented team of individuals who work well together. And fun as it may be, he added, “work” is the operative word.

“I’ve always loved work,” he said. “And this is work, but it’s pretty cool work. I started out young, and it’s all I’ve ever known. It’s a nice part of my life. It all comes together in a big wheel.”