Lake Superior's Canadian Islands
I had a pretty good adventure last weekend. The Chief and The Colonel joined me in a truck pulling an 18 foot deep v Starcraft runabout on Highway 61 headed northeast early on Thursday morning. We picked up a few things in Grand Marais and went across the border into Canada with no customs issues. After a few more stops we arrived on Lake Superior's true north shore...Nipigon Bay. This area of the big lake is studded with large and small islands, bays, reefs, and inlets. It offers quite a bit of protection for smaller boats. Still it is Lake Superior and we would need to be cautious and paying attention.
We had made a connection with local resident over the phone and so we stopped into he and his wife's nice residence on a bay. He was nice enough to point out a protected campsite well away from town as well as some fishing advice. They were both very pleasant and we chatted quite a while. After a bit, we headed over to the public access and loaded the boat. We had lot of stuff. Three people, three packs of tents, sleeping gear, and clothes, three coolers of food and refreshments, and lots of gasoline. It piled up quickly, but the Starcraft fit it all in.
The outboard fired right up, we backed out of the harbor, and headed out onto Nipigon Bay. It was a little rough and the old 85hp Evinrude was working hard to move the heavy load, we had just hit cruising speed when the motor suddenly throttled down. The Colonel, the boat's owner, said he hadn't moved the throttle, he had just lost power. The motor sputtered a bit and died completely. It failed to restart. We were about a mile from the landing. We all monkeyed with the engine...it seemed to be a gas problem. A local fellow in a fishing boat thoughtfully came to our aid. He waited until we got the 9.9hp kicker motor started and saw that we would make it back to the dock. We thought maybe there was some water in the gas tank (it is a boat after all), so the Chief went to check if he had a bottle of isopropyl alcohol in his truck. He didn't, but he did come back with the fellow we had chatted with earlier, and he had something even better, a full can of Sea Foam. It is a concoction that apparently has powers that will address water in a gas tank, as long as it isn't too much. We dumped the whole bottle in. We tried restarting the motor, and we could keep it going as long as I kept squeezing the fuel bulb. After a bit it started running on its own and we headed out again, thankful for the sea foam. Unfortunately, the motor died again, just about the same spot it did last time-but this time it restarted right away. We moved on-it seemed as though it was working through the bad gas. It sputtered a few more times, but was getting better the further we went. So we pressed on to the desired campsite. It was a nice one on a protected channel with deep water nearby that looked good for trout. It was near the big open area of Lake Superior, but not exposed to it. After the delays, we didn't have time to get out fishing, but I did throw out a salted cisco from shore hoping for a passing fish. We toasted our first day and enjoyed a pleasant, crisp evening. The Colonel whipped up some of his own traditional German potato sausage (a ring of pork, sauerkraut, potatoes, and special spices) and some sauteed brussel sprouts. It was fantastic. He sure is handy in the kitchen. We chatted well into the night before turning in.
The next morning we didn't exactly wake up at the crack of dawn and a stiff south wind was building. South winds are the worst for this area on the north shore of the world's largest lake. I threw out my shorefishing rig as we ate breakfast and I soon heard my little bell ring on the pole. I hustled down to the shore and saw the line was screaming off of the reel. Before I even grabbed the rod I heard the fish leap out of the water and splash loudly...this was going to be a big salmon or steelhead. But, it was not to be...the fish threw the hook when it leaped. Shucks. Still, it was a good sign for fishing, right?
Not exactly. The wind forced us to troll only in the two adjacent bays. They looked like good lake trout water, but it was not fast action. The Chief had a heavy fish on right away, but it also got away. He then caught a very small lake trout. That was it for action until the very end of the afternoon. As we headed back on our final trolling run back to camp, my favorite orange spoon, fished deep on a downrigger, triggered a strike. Soon a nice (4-5lb) lake trout was flopping in the net and a supper was secured just in time. As we headed back to camp, we spotted the fella from town in his 14 foot boat. He was much braver than I...I would not have been out in that small boat in that high of seas...but he has a lot more experience. He had been out fishing and stopped by to check on us. We had a cold beer on shore and traded stories. His stories of moose and deer hunting on the islands were particularly interesting. He went on his way before the winds worsened.
We enjoyed the fish in one of our favorite dishes, coconut thai rice. It is super easy to make...sauteed onions and bell peppers, coconut milk, green curry paste, with lake trout chunks and fresh basil. We put a lot more coconut milk in than most recipes call for so the trout can cook up nicely in the sauce. Once again, it was fantastic. We got to bed a bit earlier. The forecast called for even stronger south winds the next day.
The forecast did not disappoint. It was very windy on Saturday. Twenty-five knots straight off the biggest part of Lake Superior. We could see huge rolling breakers on each end of our channel. Fishing would be restricted to our bay. We tried shorefishing for quite a while with no luck. We headed out in the boat and even the bay was pretty rough. We got bounced around and we had no bites. Once again we headed back to camp and connected with a fish just as we were about to pull up the lines. The Chief caught a 5-6lb lake trout. Supper was secured again. He cleaned the fish and we took a break on camp for a while before we headed out fishing again. From camp the bay looked like it had calmed a bit. It had not. We bounced around again and only made one pass before turning towards camp. Just before the site, the Colonel connected again with a 2-3lb laker. We let it swim free.
Supper was supposed to be canned beef and noodles, but the Colonel called an audible and made a dish with sauteed mushrooms and onions in a parmesan sauce over braised lake trout. It was...you know by now...fantastic. The forecast called for calmer winds the next day, but strong winds on Monday, the day we were supposed to leave.
We woke and listened to the forecast again...it just confirmed the one from the night before. So, in the interest in safety, we decided to pack up camp and move to a campsite close to the landing. We loaded back up, got the boat going (it was now working perfectly), and hit the bigger channel back towards town. The rollers had calmed overnight and were very manageable. We checked out the site on the map that was closest to town, but it wasn't even visible from the lake. We had a chat with our friends from town-they were out for a picnic on their bigger boat-and we headed to the next closest site. It was a neat one on a sand bar that offered two protected harbors for the boat. We dumped off the gear and rigged the rods for trolling. Our first spot just off a mid-channel reef produced no fish, as did a really neat deep shoreline that had beautifully eroded cliffs. We reeled up and headed into an isolated bay near town and immediately had a hit that didn't hook up. Soon after that, an eating sized lake trout was in the boat. We made another pass and I hooked up with a nice sized coho salmon that we also invited to supper. I must say that was one of the most satisfying fish I had caught in a while. I had been fishing a shallow running stickbait off a planer board and had no action on it. I decided to get a little deeper, so I put on my favorite orange spoon and, for the first time ever, I put on a snap weight...a trolling system a friend had recommended. No joshing, I hooked that salmon 30 seconds after putting the new rig out. That felt good. Unfortunately that was the only shallow fish we hooked that day. We did get three more smallish lake trout-two of them on my orange spoon. So it wasn't too bad of a fishing afternoon.
We enjoyed a nice campfire on the beach and the Chief freestyle (no breading) fried the trout and salmon and I made up a special batch of gnocchi in a creamy sundried tomato and pesto sauce. Very good. The salmon was right up there with the best fish I have ever eaten. The Chief can clean and cook fish with the best of them. It was a beautiful night.
On Monday we quickly packed up after having some salmon salad the Colonel whipped up from some leftover fish with pickles and mayonnaise on crackers. It was a great breakfast. We loaded up and chugged into the landing without incident. The wind was building and we were glad to be off the water. We chatted with our new friends one more time. One interesting item was discussed...on the beach at our last campsite the sand was littered with literally thousands of white oval plastic pellets the size of a lady bug. They were everywhere. We could not figure out where they came from. When talking with the locals, we learned that a train derailment had happened several years ago and an entire boxcar of the pellets had been dumped in Lake Superior just up the bay. Apparently the pellets are used in oil fracking operations in some way. Now there is a boat permanently kept in the little town and its crew sucks the beached pellets in a vacuum sorter all summer long. It looked to us that they had a long ways to go.
We hit the road and headed back down the lakeshore to Thunder Bay, made it through US customs quickly and cruised into Duluth early evening. It was a good trip, learned a few lessons, fishing wasn't fast, but we couldn't have expected to learn all the spots and tricks the first time, especially when the wind prevented us from exploring too much.
Nature Moment: We didn't see too much wildlife on this trips. The islands are forested differently than other areas at this latitude because Lake Superior keeps temps low and its winds, spray, and fog affect growth. So the forests are mostly scrubby spruce and spindly birch. The trees are quite small. The islands have deer and moose and the biggest ones may have a resident wolf pack or two. There weren't even many chipmunks, squirrels, or songbirds around. There were lots of eagles, vultures, and osprey. The nature moment, though, was hearing and seeing peregrine falcons. These birds of prey are more scarce and have neat attributes-the fasted living thing on the planet when they dive bomb prey at more than 200 miles per hour. We saw then right where the guide books would say to look-big flat faced cliffs. They nest on open cliff shelves. When we watched them, one seemed to be driving another one away from the area...maybe a youngster that was reluctant to leave mom's care and head south? If I were to go to Hawk Ridge in Duluth, maybe I would see it flying by later this month.
Hubs' Flub: I am generally the guy on our trips that does the planning, including reviewing the local regulations to ensure that we are compliant. We like going to Ontario too much to lose that privilege due to ignorance. So I found it odd when the local guy that checked on us when the motor died said his first words to us: "You got enough f**king poles?" I had checked the regulations and it said we could each use two lines in Lake Superior in Ontario, so the eight poles the three of us had didn't seem out of line...2 poles per person plus some spares on a five day trip seemed about right. We didn't answer his question, we just moved on to the engine discussion.
When we went back to the dock to work on the engine, the local guy we knew brought us the sea foam and when we were about to take off again, he said, "You know you can only use 1 pole per person in this section of Lake Superior right?"
I was surprised. I had checked the regulations, but he explained that the area around the islands was an exception. I rechecked them and found the exception language in the booklet-he was right. That explained the comment from the other fellow about so many poles. Whew...although we didn't see any authorities, we were glad the guy let us know the rules. And, truth be told, we had all we could handle with only three rods. There were so many reefs and holes in the area that we were constantly raising and lowering lines and down rigging balls...it was more active than fishing around Duluth. In fact, I did snag up my dipsy diver on a surprise reef. I lost the a heavy duty clip, the dipsy, the snubber, the flourocarbon leader, the heavy duty swivels, and a seven dollar stick bait. Totaled up it probably was more than $40 worth of stuff. Ouch.
Quote of the Trip: "Be careful on Nipigon Bay...it can get really rough."
That was an unsolicited quote from a concerned fellow in the parking lot of the liquor store in Thunder Bay. He gave it to us after he had just explained he never fished Lake Superior, just inland lakes. It seemed a little odd, but we were glad for the hospitality.
Another thing that was quoted multiple times was the Chief's affectionate imitation of the old Inuit man in the movie Never Cry Wolf. The man responds to one of the lead character's crazy notions by saying "Good Idea." in a unique accent. So, whenever someone made a decision to change lures or suggested a new spot, we always responded with "Good Idea" using the accent. Unfortunately, by the end of the trip it had morphed into a new response: "Bad Idea."
