I headed up the Gunflint Trail this past weekend to do some lake trout fishing. We stayed in a comfortable cabin, living the good life without the confining winter tent. Joining me were the Captain, the Chief, Rocket Man, Ice, and the newly renamed Gunflint Jones (she had been Officer Friendly). We arrived before noon on Friday and got the gear settled, the snowmachines running, and the sleds loaded. We all took off in different directions and set up our portable fishhouses on the lake, which had a little over 2 feet of ice and a good amount of fluffy snow on it. I fished with Gunflint Jones so that I could get her up to speed with the laker fishing operation. We only had one bite all afternoon, and it spit Gunflint's hook after a few seconds. It was quite cold and windy that day. Other members of the party all caught at least one lake trout. We met back up in the cabin and enjoyed some appetizers, a martini, and some wild rice hotdish (aka "casserole" for you non-Minnesotans). Apparently there was some snoring in the night, but I didn't hear any.
Saturday morning dawned much colder than forecast.... minus 32 degrees. We took our time getting ready to fish hoping for a quick warm up. We finally got the machines running and hit the lake. Gunflint Jones decided to fish near the cabin, the rest of us took a fairly lengthy run to a favorite point. The sun was out and the wind was calm, so it warmed up nicely during the day. The fish didn't warm up, and we only caught 1 or 2 fish apiece. I didn't get one until the last second...I had everything packed up except the rod - I left the jig down while I packed. When I went to reel it in to quit fishing, a fish nailed it on the way up. Not a big fish, but it was fun to catch it at the last possible instant. It was a cold run back to the cabin where we found out that Gunflint had shared her spot with a bunch of other people and didn't get any trout up the hole. We enjoyed chili that evening and had some laughs.
On Sunday, it started cold and clear, but a strong south wind was blowing and the temp was rising. We cruised up the lake and dropped Gunflint off at a proven spot and then moved to a far away point. Rocket Man caught the biggest trout of his life - a heavy 31 inch lake trout. We all had action through the morning and early afternoon getting some pretty decent fish. I had a flurry late in the day, getting four trout in short succession. It was blowing and snowing as we packed up and cruised back to pick up Gunflint Jones. She had her best trout day ever-five nice fish, including a 27" or so fish. She had several other trout on, but they spit the hook, so she had some really fast action. She had been visited by the Game Warden...I wonder how many times he visited an ice house and find a woman, fishing alone, with a couple of nice lake trout gutted and gilled on the ice. Pretty cool stuff. We decided the Gunflint Trail was a good spot for her, so Gunflint Jones became her name (the Jones just fits it well). We cruised back to the cabin and relived our productive day. We had a fried lake trout and Northern Waters Smokehaus salami appetizer and then a tasty lake trout jambalaya.
We all fished close to the cabin on Monday morning, with a couple of trout caught. It was warm and a drizzle began to fall as we packed up the snowmachines and gear. We hit the road and stopped for lunch before cruising back to Duluth. The icy drizzle caught a few people as several cars were in the ditch between Two Harbors and Duluth. We got the gear sorted out and we went on our separate ways. It was a fun trip even though the fish only really cooperated on one of the four days. It was fun to see how excited Gunflint Jones was on her big fishing day.
The next trip will likely be the first weekend of March, not sure where I will be headed yet.
Nature Moment: It was quiet on the lake for the most part, but on the way home we did spot a Great Gray Owl on a tree top along the highway. These interesting birds sometimes come down from Canada in winters when the mice and vole population dips north of the border. They are big bodied birds, but they weigh very little, which helps their silent hunting flights.
