Spring? Fishing

My lovely bride and precious child went to the Cities for the weekend, so I decided to go camping up north. I managed to convince Officer Friendly and the Wonder Dog to join me. The forecast kept getting worse all week and when we hit the road after work on Friday, the snow was accumulating. We drove out of the snow at about Two Harbors and when we got to the secret drive to campsite on Random Rock Lake at about 7pm, it was just windy and cold. We set up a tarp and Officer Friendly set up her tent. As we ate smokehaus sandwiches for supper the snow began again in earnest. It accumulated to an inch or two, enough to collapse the tarp. We sat in the truck cab after that. We had hoped to listen to the Twins, but they were rained out. The Wonder Dog and I slept in the bed of the truck. His hips are bad enough now that I have to help him into the truck.

We woke up on Saturday to a cold wind but partly sunny skies. The snow was already melting. We took our time getting the canoe loaded up and eating breakfast, hoping that it would warm up a bit. We finally bit the bullet and hit the water. Once we got behind some points, it wasn't too cold. Wasn't warm, though. We initially fished where a small river flows into the lake, hoping the crappies would be stacked up in the current. They weren't. Nothing was in the current. We paddled further upstream, but our path was blocked by a big beaver dam. We turned around and fished some shallow bays. No fish. We then tried deeper water near an island. No crappies, but we did get two hammer handle pike. We tried some more points and bays and only had a couple sad little perch take the bait. We gave up about 4pm and went back to camp. It was nicer there out of the wind. We played catch with a football and then had Italian sausages for supper. Delicious. The temps dropped quickly, so we listened to the Twins in the cab of the truck.

Woke up on Sunday to frozen water bottles. It was chilly, but clear skies ensured it would be warming quickly. We packed up camp and hit the road. First we fished a non-designated lake that is stocked with brown trout. No bites. Next we fished two different streams for brook trout. One creek chub was our only bite. We then tried one more small stream for brook trout. It paid off-we caught several native brook trout. They are absolutely gorgeous fish. Officer Friendly caught one that was about 12 inches long, which is a really nice one for native brook trout in streams. After a bit we noticed that black flies (gnats) were hatching in the river right as we fished. We also noticed the fish were feeding on them. Finally we noticed the fish were so busy eating flies, they didn't want our worms any more. So we headed home, arriving without incident.

Nature Moment: Just after we left camp, Officer Friendly noticed a large bird sitting on a tree next to the road. It turned out to be a Goshawk, which are really cool birds that hunt in thick forests, expertly making tight maneuvers around the trees as they chase prey. Since they like the thick woods, we don't see them very often. This one hung out next the road for a while, so we got a rare good look at it.

Next weekend is walleye and lake trout opener, so I'll be heading up north again, this time fishing with Captain Karkov and his girlfriend.