I went on my final winter camping trip of 2010 this past weekend. It was touch and go if we would even made the trip up north, as record breaking warm temperatures were threatening the ice. The Lone Chihuahua and Tangerine Boy arrived at my house from the Twin Cities Wednesday night and got some repacking done, told some stories, and hit the hay.
Officer Friendly arrived at 6:00am the next day and we took off for the Gunflint Trail. After a couple stops we arrived at our destination lake. There was absolutely no snow in the woods. It was 50 degrees and windy. The ice had pulled away from the landing enough that we couldn't get on the ice pack. I wandered around and finally found a spot in the shadow of the shore that we could use to get in the lake. We made the decision to just camp in the parking lot instead of going onto the lake to find a campsite. I didn't want to walk 3 miles only to find out that we couldn't find a spot to access the shoreline to camp. We hit the ice to fish near the parking lot. The ice was still about 20 inches thick and fairly solid, but it was shrinking and it was water logged. We checked out some points and islands and managed to land four lake trout between us and Officer Friendly caught a bonus whitefish. We set up camp on a warm evening and enjoyed venison steaks and mushrooms.
On Friday morning we ate breakfast and were about to hit the lake when a busload of high school seniors arrived. 57 kids were planning on camping on the lake. The max group size is 9 in the BWCA, but that didn't seem to bother the leaders. They were head south, so we headed north. After about a two mile walk, we discovered that open water and bad ice in a couple narrows was preventing us from accessing desirable trout water. We were forced to fish in areas that weren't near really deep water (areas with access to deep water is generally better for lake trout). After a bit, Tangerine Boy and the Lone Chihuahua gave up and headed back to deeper water near the landing. Officer Friendly and I stuck it out in the shallow area, fighting off the cold, gray, windy day. It paid off. We each caught several trout, including 2 26 inch and 1 25 inch fish. We wandered back to the main lake and found that our associates had caught nothing. Just after we arrived, however, Tangerine Boy caught a nice trout on a tip-up. I jigged up another trout just before we called it a day. It was corned beef and cabbage for supper-a wonderful meal provided to us by a co-worker.
On Saturday, after a cold night, we all headed back to the hole that Officer Friendly and I had done so well in the day before. We set up Tangerine Boy and the Lone Chihuahua on our holes and Officer Friendly and I went to a new area to fish. I immediately hit a hot streak-jigging up four nice trout in the first 1/2 hour. As I was fighting the last fish, a nice 25 incher, my tip-up went off, and after landing the trout on the jig rod, I went and caught the one on the tip-up too. It was lucky streak. It slowed after that, so we entertained ourselves on the cold, sunny, and windy day by playing on the clear, slippery ice surface. Throwing a frisbee disc on the bare ice meant it would go forever before stopping. We also used our safety picks and ski poles to propel our sleds down the ice. The Lone Chihuahua also played a game where he let his chair blow away down the lake and he chased it for a long time before catching it. The rest of us declined to play that game. The Lone Chihuahua finally caught another trout that afternoon, but that was it. We went back to the main lake for the 5:00 bite and it again paid off, with the Lone Chihuahua and I each jigging up nice trout. Supper was the world famous Tangerine Boy's wife's secret family recipe chili. Delicious.
On Sunday, the Lone Chihuahua and Tangerine Boy packed up and headed home. Officer Friendly and I fished near the landing for a couple hours and she caught 2 more trout. We packed up at noon and hit the road, stopping for lunch at the Gunflint Tavern. It was a good trip to end the year, even though we we unable to reach our original destination.
Nature Moment: On the way north at the beginning of the trip we spotted a lone wolf along the highway. It was in the same area as we saw a wolf two weeks ago.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Trout on the Beach
It was another trip up north this past weekend. The Lieutenant met me at my house at 6am on Thursday. We hitched the snowmachine trailer up to my truck and headed up the North Shore. It is interesting to drive Highway 61 during this time of year. The North Shore is home to a very large population of wintering whitetail deer due to the south facing slope of the hills lining Lake Superior (the south slope gets more winter sun than other areas). As winter begins to fade into spring, melting snow begins to reveal all the deer carcasses along the roadway. There are hundreds of them. Often, when melting conditions are right, the snow under the carcass won't melt and the carcass will be perched up on a snow podium well above the ground. We call the perched carcasses "deersicles." Deersicles attract all kinds of critters, including ravens, coyotes, and bald eagles. On Thursday morning we even saw a timber wolf at a carcass.
We cruised up the Gunflint Trail to our destination lake. We unloaded the snow machines, hitched up the Otter Sleds with our gear in them, and took off down the lake. It was sunny and it was already getting warm as we made our way to our campsite. It was well above freezing as we set up the winter tent and wood stove, organized our gear, and headed out to a proven fishing spot. No fish house or heaters were needed-instead sunglasses and sunscreen were employed. The Lieutenant caught a few small lake trout and one decent one that afternoon and I caught one trout and lost a couple more. We were surprised to see several other anglers on the lake-we had always found the lake to be very quiet in the past. That night we ate wild rice and trout chowder and enjoyed "fire brick ginger cookies," a winter camping staple.
On Friday it was warm again, although a brisk wind cooled things a bit. It was a fast lake trout bite all day. Lieutenant caught several lake trout and I caught eleven. Most of them were on the small side, but I did get a 27 inch fish that was very heavy for its length. Later in the afternoon, I set the hook on a bigger fish. It immediately peeled off nearly all of the line on my reel and the battle was on. After a bit I started to finally gain some line, but soon felt the hook pop free. Aargh. But wait-I still had him...that was odd. I continued the fight, which didn't feel quite normal...the fish felt weird. I got the fish up to the hole and saw it was a dandy...30 to 32 inches, I am guessing. I also saw the cause of the mysterious fight. The lake trout was no longer hooked. The hook had popped free as I had thought, but somehow the hook and line worked together in a veritable lasso to rope the fish around the dorsal fin. I tried to get the fish up the hole tail first, but it slipped out of the "lasso" and swam away. Shucky darn, I said (or words to that effect). Still, it was a good day of fishing. Some of the fish came on my Windlass tip-up, which is always fun. The Windlass is a tip-up that uses a wind sail to jig the bait automatically. It doesn't get a ton of use because it has to be above freezing and windy, but not too windy, to use it. So using it is a treat. It was a warm evening outside as we enjoyed jalapeno brats and sauerkraut for supper.
On Saturday we went back to the hot spot, which broke my general rule of not fishing in the same spot two days in a row for lake trout. I should have listened to myself. It started out pretty well with a nice fish on a tip-up for me and the Lieutenant hooking, but eventually losing a big fish. It shut down after that. I didn't get any more fish and the Lieutenant only caught a few smaller ones. It was another sunny and warm day. Chicken and Dumplings for supper. Lots of people on the ice again today.
Sunday dawned very warm. Concern about deteriorating snow conditions encouraged us to leave right after packing up. Our concern proved to be true as we were forced to cross some bad ice near the open water of a creek mouth and then the bad snow was causing our snowmachines to not cool properly. We made it back to the truck safely however, and, after a Gunflint Tavern lunch, we got back to Duluth by mid-afternoon.
All-in-all, it was another good trip with good fishing part of the time, and slow fishing part of the time, which is fairly typical. Being able to use the snowmachines up north may be done for the year unless some new snow falls. I'll take one more trip in a couple weeks in which I hope to walk a bit into the BWCA. After that, I'll be looking forward to the canoeing season.
Nature Moment: Friday morning, as we were getting settled over a favorite spot, a chorus of howling wolves let their nearby presence known. They were quite close and quite loud.
We cruised up the Gunflint Trail to our destination lake. We unloaded the snow machines, hitched up the Otter Sleds with our gear in them, and took off down the lake. It was sunny and it was already getting warm as we made our way to our campsite. It was well above freezing as we set up the winter tent and wood stove, organized our gear, and headed out to a proven fishing spot. No fish house or heaters were needed-instead sunglasses and sunscreen were employed. The Lieutenant caught a few small lake trout and one decent one that afternoon and I caught one trout and lost a couple more. We were surprised to see several other anglers on the lake-we had always found the lake to be very quiet in the past. That night we ate wild rice and trout chowder and enjoyed "fire brick ginger cookies," a winter camping staple.
On Friday it was warm again, although a brisk wind cooled things a bit. It was a fast lake trout bite all day. Lieutenant caught several lake trout and I caught eleven. Most of them were on the small side, but I did get a 27 inch fish that was very heavy for its length. Later in the afternoon, I set the hook on a bigger fish. It immediately peeled off nearly all of the line on my reel and the battle was on. After a bit I started to finally gain some line, but soon felt the hook pop free. Aargh. But wait-I still had him...that was odd. I continued the fight, which didn't feel quite normal...the fish felt weird. I got the fish up to the hole and saw it was a dandy...30 to 32 inches, I am guessing. I also saw the cause of the mysterious fight. The lake trout was no longer hooked. The hook had popped free as I had thought, but somehow the hook and line worked together in a veritable lasso to rope the fish around the dorsal fin. I tried to get the fish up the hole tail first, but it slipped out of the "lasso" and swam away. Shucky darn, I said (or words to that effect). Still, it was a good day of fishing. Some of the fish came on my Windlass tip-up, which is always fun. The Windlass is a tip-up that uses a wind sail to jig the bait automatically. It doesn't get a ton of use because it has to be above freezing and windy, but not too windy, to use it. So using it is a treat. It was a warm evening outside as we enjoyed jalapeno brats and sauerkraut for supper.
On Saturday we went back to the hot spot, which broke my general rule of not fishing in the same spot two days in a row for lake trout. I should have listened to myself. It started out pretty well with a nice fish on a tip-up for me and the Lieutenant hooking, but eventually losing a big fish. It shut down after that. I didn't get any more fish and the Lieutenant only caught a few smaller ones. It was another sunny and warm day. Chicken and Dumplings for supper. Lots of people on the ice again today.
Sunday dawned very warm. Concern about deteriorating snow conditions encouraged us to leave right after packing up. Our concern proved to be true as we were forced to cross some bad ice near the open water of a creek mouth and then the bad snow was causing our snowmachines to not cool properly. We made it back to the truck safely however, and, after a Gunflint Tavern lunch, we got back to Duluth by mid-afternoon.
All-in-all, it was another good trip with good fishing part of the time, and slow fishing part of the time, which is fairly typical. Being able to use the snowmachines up north may be done for the year unless some new snow falls. I'll take one more trip in a couple weeks in which I hope to walk a bit into the BWCA. After that, I'll be looking forward to the canoeing season.
Nature Moment: Friday morning, as we were getting settled over a favorite spot, a chorus of howling wolves let their nearby presence known. They were quite close and quite loud.
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