It was an interesting President's Day weekend. Captain Karkov and I went up the Gunflint Trail to go after some lake trout through the ice. The forecast was intimidating when met up at 5am to begin the trek north. 40 to 50 mph winds? We bet the wind wasn't going to be that strong once we got off the shore of Lake Superior. When we arrived at our destination lake a few hours later, we discovered that 40 mph winds were indeed the case. It was obvious that the wind would prevent any fishing that day, even if we found an island to tuck behind. Our main concern turned to just getting on the lake to a decent campsite without the benefit of much snow to cool our snow machines. The week's warm spell had turned the lake into a sloppy wet mess for a few days, then the previous nights cold snap had refrozen the lake into a rock hard, rough surface. Barely any loose snow existed any longer. Quite a change from the snowy, slushy lake surfaces that had dominated the winter previously. After much contemplating, we decided to go for it. We headed up the lake, sticking close to shore where there was a bit more snow. It was a slow, rough ride with all the camping equipment towed behind our snow machines, but we made it, even passing through a white out of blowing snow the last mile. Despite a lot of protection from trees and vegetation, the wind made setting up camp a bit more challenging. It was difficult to get the windward side of the canvas tent stretched out and snow flapped. We persevered and after getting everything organized, we lit a fire in the wood stove, had some lunch and relaxed for a bit. Later, we went for a snow machine ride to check the lake out a bit further. After a supper of spaghetti, we listened to the local trivia show and solved several of the world's problems. Should have written them down, though.
We woke on Saturday to calm winds and sunshine. It looked to be a good day, and it was. As we packed to go fishing, another friend, Trout Teacher, arrived to join us. He had left town at 3am that day. Unfortunately, he had suffered a nasty looking eye injury when a taut bungee cord slipped his grip while packing at the landing. His vision was blurry in the eye, but I didn't see a puncture or scratch, so he decided to set up camp and see what happened. The eye progressively improved over the course of the weekend, so I hope it will be okay. Captain and I left him to get his tent up and we headed for our honey hole, affectionately called "Tuna Town" (it acquired the name due to its propensity to give up huge lake trout, aka "tunas"). It was an uneventful ride and soon we were setting up our portable shelters in 40-50 feet of water off the point. I hooked my first lake trout before my jig even hit the bottom. It was a nice 3 to 4 pound fish and I put it on the ice. I dropped my jig down again and had steady action all day after that. I think I ended icing 14 lake trout, one of my best days ever. The biggest fish was only about 5 pounds, but only one or two of the fish were under 2 pounds. Unfortunately, the only big fish I hooked got away after a battle that straightened my hook. It was sunny and calm most of the day-left the heater off in the house and did some fishing outside as well. Captain also caught many fish, including a 30" (8-10lb) trout. Trout Teacher arrived after morning flurry and didn't do as well where he set up in deeper water. We cruised back to camp as it neared dark, gathering some firewood as we went. We had brats and mashed potatoes for supper and the three of us chatted about life's twists and turns until we hit the hay.
Sunday was sunny, but a bit windy. The fluffy 2 inches of snow that fell in the night help soften the lake surface a bit as we traveled to our hot spot. I set up in a new area that was more out of the wind and immediately hooked a bigger fish that threw the hook. I had been filling my cup with tea from my thermos when it hit, and when I tried to set the hook, I only managed to drop the rod. I then fought the fish for a bit, but it got away, possibly due to my bumbling. I caught a small trout after that, and then didn't see any action for an hour or so, so I decided to go with Trout Teacher to another spot. This spot was out of the wind and Trout Teacher immediately started catching fish, but they were all quite small. He made up for the lack of size in the morning with a 30" lake trout early that afternoon. As I took his photo, I saw my tip flag was up. This was the first time I had a flag go up this winter-all my trout had come when jigging. I caught the nice 3-4 pound trout, and soon added another 2-3 pound trout, also on the tip up. It was good to know the thing works. It was also good I was able to test out the new "circle hooks" I had bought for the tip up worked. They are designed to pull out of a fish's stomach if the fish swallows the bait. The hook then is designed to slide up the mouth and hook in the side of the mouth. Both fish came up the hole perfectly hooked in the side of the mouth, and swam away healthy when released. Pretty cool. The key to using a circle hook, I am told, is not to set the hook with a jerk, but instead to just start reeling. It seemed to work for me. I caught a few more trout right before it was time to pack up, so after a slow start the day ended up being decent for numbers of fish. Captain had stayed at our original spot, and he reported good success as well, although the wind at that spot was less comfortable. We headed back to camp and enjoyed wild rice soup for supper.
Monday morning, President's Day, was again windy and cold. Captain had a minor snow machine issue that caused a bit of delay in our packing up, and when combined with the wind, it caused us to decide not to fish that day. It was a very pokey snow machine ride back to the landing-the lake was rougher than ever. Despite going slow, I did shatter one of my square buckets that I have used as my canoe food containers. I'll have to find another one somewhere. We headed back to civilization, ate some lunch and arrived back in the Duluth that afternoon.
It was a good trip, despite some weather issues that limited our fishing to just 2 of 4 days. I already am looking forward to going back.
Nature Moment: When getting ready to head back to camp on Saturday afternoon, we spotted a fox trotting along the shore. The next morning, when heading back out to fish, the fox's tracks were plain in the new snow. The tracks went right to where I had been fishing the day before-and where I had left the innards of the trout I had gutted and gilled. Of course the innards were now gone, cleaned up courtesy of the fox.
