Trout Bassin'

Calm Waters and Blue Skies

The annual Camp Sh*tstorm canoe trip occurred this year from May 26 to June 4.  After much planning and preparation (not easy for 8 guys on a 10 day trip), the guys all arrived in Duluth on the 25th.  After some packing and repacking, the Colonel (aka Smoked Fish Guy) had the big, brick, wood fired pizza oven going and had several doughballs for crusts made up.  We quickly made some great pies, including toppings such as panchetta, smoked pork loin, pepperoni, several cheeses, and even an egg or two.  It was a great time with my wonderful bride and super kid there to help out.

The next morning on Memorial Day we hit the road north.  On this trip was me (Private Phillips), the Colonel, Tick Check, Wear-Some-Shorts, Fran Tarkington Fan, Swimming Turtle, The Bull, and the Freshman.  We hit the boat landing mid-morning and as we loaded the canoes up, another group came off the lake to go home.  They had spent the weekend hunting for shed moose antlers and had found many, but unfortunately most of them were many seasons old and pretty beat up.  There just are so few moose in the woods anymore.  We did the necessary "before" trip photo and grabbed our paddles, fishing our way across the expansive island studded lake on a beautiful, sunny, calm day.  We cruised down the shore a few miles with a couple lake trout being caught before we settled on a nice campsite that stretched the full width of a peninsula with canoe landings on both sides.  We had a lot of laughs as we built a fire and cooked up some Northern Waters Smokehaus brats with all the fixings.  Paired with a fine pale ale, supper was perfect.  We all got caught up on trip mates' lives around the fire that night.  The black flies and mosquitoes were starting to come out after the cold winter with a late spring.  The water temps were still very cold.

We all packed up on a beautiful morning and ate premade breakfast burritos grilled over a fire.  It was calm and warm, just about perfect.  We made our first portage and then made our way across a lake to a portage bypassing a waterfall.  The water is very high right now due the late spring and the deep winter.  It was difficult to access the portage take out near the rapids.  We ended up doing a little bushwacking to get around the cataract.  Everybody dropped a line in on the next lake and several lake trout were caught, but all were quite small.  The next two lakes only produced 1 or 2 smallmouth bass for the entire group.  We cruised and fished down our destination lake, looking for a campsite.  We settled on a fairly poor site, but it had good views and its lack of shade wasn't a big deal as it wasn't too warm out.  Shorefishing and swimming the days grime away were the next tasks.  No fish shorefishing either.  A fine dinner of grilled hanging tender steaks, a well paired bottle of red wine, and roasted asparagus finished the day.

Day 3 opened sunny and calm again.  We packed camp, wolfed down a couple mini-bagels, and hit the water.  Wear-Some-Shorts and I checked out some of the lake's other campsites and were not at all impressed.  This area was hard hit by the July 4, 1999 blowdown.  We then made our way through several small lakes connected by short portages, with some team members catching a few northern pike.  We landed on our destination lake and found the big body of water, bound by hills and steep cliffs on all sides, was dead calm.  Everyone trolled towards the campsite that we had in mind,  one of our true favorites in the BWCA.  Nice shade, great swimming rock, good tent pads, good tarp hanging trees, good garage, nice kitchen.  A few trout were caught on the way there and a few more were caught after setting up camp.  It was dirty rice with andouille sausage and lake trout for supper.  More and more we like to "free style" our lake trout.  Simply melt some butter in the fry pan, season a skinned, but not breaded, filet chunk and fry it in the butter.  The stronger trout taste holds up very well and the lack of breading lets that taste shine.  We tried many seasoning combinations over the course of the trip and they were all great.  Old Bay, pesto, black pepper, garlic powder and other seasoning combined many different ways to keep your taste buds guessing.

It was again sunny and calm on Day 4.  I paired up with the Freshman for a layover day trout fishing bonanza.  We caught many smallish trout and the best fishing was on shallow reefs and shorelines.  Five to 10 feet was the best depths.  We could watch the trout follow and hit our lures.  We had the best success casting over the shallow structure and reeling the lures back to the canoe, just like we were fishing for summer bass.  Trout Bassin' was born.  It was a bit warmer that day and we took advantage of the top layer of water warming and did some jumping off the rock to swim and clean up.  It was still mighty cold, but doable.  The lazy afternoon led to all the boats coming back to camp and all were telling stories of many lake trout caught, and many of the fish were caught sight fishing in shallow water.  No big trout, though.  The unreleased fish were invited to be the main ingredient for our "Kek Burger" supper, a meal invented on the BWCA's Kekekabic Lake several years ago.  It is a bacon trout cheeseburger.

We decided to pack up and head north on Day 5.  We split into two alternative routes with Wear-Some-Shorts heading more west to bigger lake trout water and the others going more east to fish current areas for bass and walleye.  The trout were pretty stubborn and we only caught one.  The others also had slower fishing.  The destination campsite was open and we took it.  None of the campsites in this are real nice, and this one had some issues with a lack of shade and having spongy tent pads.  It had a good swimming rock and the point out front caught the breeze.  This was important as the black flies and mosquitoes were coming out in force after the 4 previous warm days.  We all headed out fishing after getting camp set up.  Wear-Some-Shorts and I fished a shallow reef for bass or walleye with no bites on our slip bobber rigs.  We then trolled a shoreline into a bay.  I caught a bass immediately, and as we cruised into the shallow, sandy, back end of the bay my spinner and leech was hit again.  Good, I thought, we found the walleyes.  Nope, it was a lake trout.  The trout were shallow in this new lake, too.  We ended up getting several nicer lake trout and two really stout whitefish just off the sand beach. Other reported slow fishing for the most part with a bass or trout here and there, but only one walleye.  Just too cold yet, I guess.  In fact it was the only walleye of the entire trip.  It didn't matter to me, the trout were hitting, so why fight the walleyes?  It was a supper of "The World's Most Expensive Mac and Cheese" Aged gouda, parmesan, and butter over bow ties with chunked pepperoni. With double battered fried fish along with it, it was delicious!  Listening to the forecast before bed, we prepped for a 100% chance of rain the next day.

It dawned dark and dry.  In fact, we watched the rain bounce around us all day until finally a drizzle set in about 6pm.  So we got in a good solid day of fishing.  People caught trout just off camp and some bass were found in the back bays.  I paired with Fran Tarkington Fan this day and we made our way back to the beach where I had found the trout the day before.  We made some trolling passes and got several bites, but we only landed a couple - lake trout are very adept as throwing the hook, especially when they are along side the canoe.  We did a trolling tour of the island we were camped on and had a couple strikes, but nothing hooked up solid, so we went back to the sand bay.  This time we fan casted our spoons and big spinners as we meandered around the bay.  We caught several nice lakers this way...again like we were casting for summertime bass...Trout Bassin'.  It started to drizzle as we made our way back to camp.  Rain began in earnest as supper was prepared.  It was another great meal - Coconut thai rice with trout chuncks.  It is always a good one.  The rain soaked us pretty good over night.

Day 7 was a travel day and a drizzle/rain pattern settled in early.  Wear-Some-Shorts and I trolled the entire length of the passage to the first portage without a bite, even though the water looked good for trout.  We made an uphill carry, the longest of the trip, to the next lake.  The portage had a scenic waterfall next to it and featured the biggest cedar trees I had ever seen.  We trolled across the new, much smaller lake and were please to catch several nice sized lake trout.  It was the fastest action of the trip as pretty much everyone caught trout crossing the lake.  We floated through a riffle into another lake.  The best campsite was taken, but we found an adequate site on the other side of the island.  We tried to try our gear out as best we could, but the alternate rain/mist/drizzle made it difficult.  Some attempts at fishing were made, but very few fish were coaxed to bite.  The nasty cold front we had around us was taking its toll.  Good thing we kept some trout from the other lake for supper.  The Colonel tried a new recipe for supper, a lemon zested trout, mushroom and noodle dish.  It was very good.

The rain kept up all night and we again packed the wet gear and headed out.  Wear-Some-Shorts broke this lake's seal just as we approached the portage by catching a nice trout.  We headed down a portage to a lake we have paddled through many times and have never caught a lake trout on, even though they are present according to the DNR.  We trolled to the next portage and just as it bagan shallowing up, my rod bent over with a strike.  I was excited to get a trout, but alas, it was a decent northern pike.  Oh well.  We were finally struck with a head wind as we crossed the biggest water of the trip.  But, as we near the point to turn and head south, the northeast wind diminished and we had an easy trail going down the lake.  We had no action.  The water was high enough to float into our destination lake.  Some sun was thinking about popping out between continued drizzling. I discovered my rain pants leaked at the crotch.  The rain finally ceased for the most part when we set up camp and I was able to dry out much of my stuff.  I tried shore fishing for bass and walleye and others sought them out in canoes, and just enough bass were caught to fry up and be served with our doctored up mashed potatoes.  The flavored instant mashed potatoes made nowadays are actually quite good and I beef them up a bit by adding my personally dehydrated hamburger and mixed veggies.

We woke on Day 9 to sun and a very stiff north wind.  It help dry out all our gear and we packed up and headed out.  A short hilly portage brought us to the next lake, where the bugs were pretty serious.  We blew with a tailwind to the next portage bringing us back to our entry lake.  We got our desired campsite and people set out to get some last supper trout.  Only one was caught - the cold front had us stymied.  I had caught some nice fish right from shore at this campsite before, but there were no bites this time.  The final supper was pesto noodles and free style trout.  I love "Camp Pesto."

On the final morning, the camp was packed up and we made the short paddle to the landing and the trucks.  It was sunny and calm and the bugs were out in force again.  We loaded up the gear and canoes and after the "After" group picture, we headed back to town.  We found a good spot for burgers and beer and made the uneventful trip home.  After getting things repacked in Duluth, the other fellas headed out after hardy handshakes.  It wasn't the best fishing we've had but the Trout Bassin' was really fun.  The water was just too cold to easily catch walleyes and bass without live minnows.  Overall, another great trip!

Nature Moment: We saw the normal loons, eagles, and ducks on the water, but we were surprised to see flocks of geese on a couple lakes and even saw a pair of geese with a brood of babies.  I don't believe I have ever seen Canadian geese in the BWCA other than high flying flocks.  Odd.  We also saw an inordinate amount of garter snakes on the portage.  Must be a good snake year.

Quote of the Trip: There were lots of good ponderings on this trip with questions about the make-a-wish program, the origin of frogs and turtles and other universe examinations.  The quote of the trip, however, evolved over the entire trip and resulted in: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, RCA recording artists...the Black Flies!!!!"

Hubs' Flub:  There I was, in the canoe over deep water.  I decided to put on a shallow running sinking rapala.  I removed the previous lure, got out a wire leader, hooked the rapala to it and tossed it over the side of the canoe.  Did you catch the flub?  I never hooked the leader, and thus the rapala to the line coming off my reel.  The brand new never before used rapala sank to the bottom of the lake to be never seen again.  I wish I could say this was the first time I have done that...

The Black Flies in full stage costuming

Snow Day

Oh Canada!

After pretty much writing off the inland ice fishing season due to cold, snow, and slush, a opportunity presented itself...by going to northwest Ontario, we could take advantage of the late winter and fish into April (MN closes its trout season on March 31).  So, me, the Lt., the Col., and the Chief all headed north to the border on a beautiful day.  We made arrangements with the resort owner just prior to crossing into Canada, as he would not be at the facility and we had to let ourselves in.  The trip to the parking lot went fine, and we were in good spirits as we loaded the gear into the sleds and snowmachined down the steep portage to the first lake on the 6 mile trip.  Halfway down, I notice my sled was no longer behind me.  I walked back to pick it up and discovered the hitch had broke.  I rigged it up with rope and limped it to the lake.  The Chief had a tool kit with extra nuts and bolts and he was able to fix the hitch.  We thought, well, that is Hubs' Flub for the trip, we are now home free...Ha!  Never should have thought that.  We were watchful for slush the entire way in, but we only found deep snow on the ice.  We could see evidence of others finding slush previously, but it had all froze up for us. However, when we neared the island with the resort...well, I'll save that for Hubs' Flub.  Let's just say we didn't end up fishing that day.  We settled into the very basic, but comfortable cabin, getting the wood stove fired up and after some trials, got the propane range going as well. We had planned on making Kek Burgers (world's greatest sandwich) that night, but with no fish, I was glad we decided to throw in some hamburger at the last minute.  It was regular old burgers that night.  We had found the generator under a sheet of plywood, cleared out the snow and got it fired up for lights.  Some hiccups, but not a horrible first day.  

The next day dawn fairly crisply, but after getting out on the ice, the sun warmed quickly.  The ice was a layer of snow, then a layer of frozen slush that was just thick enough that we didn't break through it, then a layer of watery slush, and finally a thick layer of ice.  Our augers barely were long enough to get through the layers (about 40" total).  

I had the hot hand early, getting three quick trout, but then it slowed.  The Chief and Colonel struggled to find fish, but the Lt., in his usual crazy rebel way, fish a shallow, slushy channel and cleaned up on nice trout.  Late season trout can be found anywhere in the uniformly cold water.  The Captain and Rocket Man drove up that morning and joined us that afternoon.  They caught only 1 trout in their limited hours of fishing.  The sun felt nice, though, and we were confident we would find the fish the next day.  

It was sunny and beautiful the next morning.  We spread out and fished many new spots, with Captain having a good run early on nice trout.  I caught one right away and then didn't see any fish.  I moved around a lot on the absolutely gorgeous, nearly T-shirt weather day.  We all moved around a lot and everyone was getting a fish here and fish there, nothing fast.  Finally, I drilled hole right off the resort's island.  Of course, I immediately caught a dandy 30" trout.  Should have fished there all day.  That evening's adventures including the generator not running, but the smaller backup fired up and got the lights on.  

The next morning, we woke to strong winds and gray skies.  The wind was building to very strong gusts. There would be no fishing that day.  We estimated the strongest gust to be 45mph.  Getting a portable fish house up would have been impossible.  Soon, it started snowing - the forecast on the radio called for 3-5 inches of snow.  We all lazed about the cabin, getting naps in, and a card game or two was played.  We made the most of it.  It kept snowing, and before long, we realized that this was not going to be just 3-5 inches.  We hit the hay wondering if we would be able to dig ourselves out in the morning.  

We woke to a diminishing wind and no snow falling, but that was the only good news.  Everything was buried under an estimated 14" of windblown snow.  It took all morning to dig out the snowmachines and trailers.  Along the way, we heard on the radio that the road we needed to take was closed and snowplows had a lot of work to do before it would open.  We realized we would be there another night. After getting dug out, we did a little more fishing without much luck and the Captain and Rocket Man ran the route out on their snowmachines in an attempt to pack down a trail in the new snow.  Neither generator would start that night and we ate by candlelight.  With no communication, we hoped our wives and significant others would not be too worried about our not showing up.  

The next morning was sunny and after getting packed up, we slowly made our way back to the trucks.  The better snowmachines ran the trail ahead and packed it down for the rest of our vintage sleds.  I was running last in line when, once again, my machine suddenly sputtered and died.  Aargh, not again, they said it was fixed!  After a bit, the Chief came by and picked me up.  We got his portable battery and a set of jumper cables to run the fuel injector, but it wouldn't run.  Finally we realized that a wire was loose coming out of the fuse box.  We got it patched up and were surprised it still wouldn't run.  That is when I noticed one of us must have leaned on the kill switch.  As soon as that up, the machine fired right up and started charging the battery no problem.  We drove it on down the trail.  The last, steep trail up the hill to the trucks was tough in the deep snow.  I tried to keep my power up through the last hill, but my speed got away from me and buried the machine in the woods. Sigh.  My buddies help dig it out with the only damage being the destruction of my carefully crafted rack on the back.  At the trucks, we were relieved to find that the road had been plowed that morning, even if it was only the left lane.  Now the challenge was getting the trucks and trailers up the steep hill to the road from the parking area.  After getting the trucks loaded I led the charge up the hill and blasted out on to the road, where we finally loaded the snowmachines and were on our way home.  There were no other incidents and we made the calls to the ladies as we crossed the border.  They were relieved, but a little upset that we were arriving home 24 hours late.  

It was a good trip, but having communication with loved ones might be a good idea in winter.  Fishing wasn't as good as hoped, but the fun was, as always, at a high level.

Nature Moment: Again, winter wildlife sightings are not frequent, but one day we did enjoy the sight of an otter making its way across the frozen lake - run, run, sliiiiide, run, run, sliiiide, on its belly the full width of the lake.  We also were visited by the constant ravens and at least a few bald eagles were in the area, getting ready to nest despite the lingering winter.   

Quote of the Trip: "Hey fellas! Look at me!" (see video above).

Hubs' Flub: Sigh.  Me and snowmachines.  On Day 1, I was in the lead going to the cabin for the first time, as I had spoken to the owner about the approach.  Nearly to the island, I noticed some real disturbances in the snow where it appeared that the previous visitors had gotten stuck in slush near the flag pole.  I had been told to go around to the east side of the island nearer to the cabin to avoid the slush.  Poking along, I suddenly realized that there was even more slush in that area.  I should have gunned it towards shore where there appeared to be slushy trail.  Instead, I bailed and tried to turn out of the slush back towards the main lake.  Big mistake.  With my heavy sled behind me, I soon bogged down and got stuck in the slush.  It was 12"-18" deep, way over my boots.  I unhooked the trailer and got the box out of my rack to lighten the load, but the machine stayed stuck.  The other fellas finally came over and, with icy cold feet, we pushed and pulled the sled out of the mess and the Lt. finally took the reigns and rode the machine bucking bronco style to dry snow.  We were a sodden group, and we quickly got the gear to the cabin and got the wood stove going to start drying boots.  There was no fishing that day, thanks to me.  We were lucky it was a 25 degree sunny, calm day.  A nasty cold day?  That snowmachine might still be up there.  

Winter Catch-Up

Front Door Lake Trout

I am sorry for the huge delay in my blog entries.  Work is swamping me right now. Following the fun fishing of the January trip, it became extremely cold and snowed a ton.  Most lakes were covered in slush (watery layer of snow on top of ice) that made travel, even by snowmachine, impossible.  I did a day trip to a small stream trout lake one day and set up in the deep, messy slush and actually caught some nice rainbows and splake. I went winter camping once in February with my neighbor, but only fished about 8 hours or so in three days due to the weather.  We caught a few lake trout, but nothing special.  It was minus 15 F and windy the first night and it was -29 F the second night in the tent.  Burned a lot of wood.  

The continued snow and cold forced us to cancel another big Canadian trip at the beginning of March.  The good news was that Lake Superior froze up pretty good by then, and so I was able to fish just minutes from my front door four times.  And caught zero fish.   Buddies around me got some trout, eelpout, and herring, but nada for me.  Finally, later in the month, I went with my neighbor to a Lake Superior spot in Wisconsin and did well, getting some nice trout in the 30" range.  

So, all winter I only went camping once, way down from normal.  We did one more trip at the end of March into April, but that one warrants its own blog entry.