Autumn Breezes In

 The View from a Tow Boat

I was lucky enough to take a short canoe trip last week.  The Basement Brewer and I left Duluth extremely early on Thursday morning and headed up the North Shore and then inland to our towboat departure.  The towboat put our canoe on top of its rack and then shuttled us up to the BWCA non-motorized zone.  From then on it was just paddle power.  It was a light drizzle interspersed with light showers all day.  The clouds were low and gray, but the temperature wasn't too cold for late September.  We cruised over a couple portages and lakes and made the final, uphill portage to our destination, a fairly good sized lake that had given up several lake trout during my one night stay there a couple years ago.  We traveled a few miles on the lake and set up camp at our preferred site.  Only one other site on the lake was occupied.  Our site had a poor landing area for the canoe and the tent pads were marginal, but it had a great view from the fire grate and it dropped straight into deep water for a shot at shore fishing for lake trout.  It also had strategically placed jack pines that allowed for an easy set up of the rain tarp.

After camp was set up, we headed out trolling spoons for lake trout.  It took a little bit of time, but we some bites and brought a nice fish back to camp with us to serve as an appetizer for our bratwurst supper.  I had snuck in a growler of Starfire from the Fitger's Brewhouse to augment the meal.  Sleep came easily after an early morning and a long day.

Landing a Lake Trout

On Friday we had a leisurely morning on a cloudy, but not rainy, day.  We tried some shore fishing while eating breakfast, but had no bites.  We packed a day pack and headed up the lake, trolling as we went.  We didn't have any bites before we pulled up to a steep, little used portage.  The Brewer threaded the canoe through tight turns to the next lake.  We found a small lake with steep cliffs.  We had trolled our spinners only a few yards when I caught the first lake trout, smallish, but with big shoulders.  It became the theme of the day, as we caught many nice lakers on a variety of lures, a real fun day.  We checked out the two campsites on the lake and neither were real good, but would do for a couple nights and a small party.  After a while, we portaged back to our camp lake, where we picked up another nice laker on the way back to camp.  The sun was starting to think about coming out.  We had one of my favorite suppers - Thai curry with lake trout over rice.  Much of the meal was made with my own dehydrated ingredients - green peppers, sundried tomatoes, basil.  It was very good as usual.

Saturday dawned with sunshine and a south breeze.  We lingered around the coffee pot, enjoying the rays.  We decided to hit the area around camp hard to see if the trout were there.  One was.  Just one.  We tried all kinds of lures, depths, and structure.  Only the one fish.  The wind didn't help, making trolling a chore at times.  Such is fishing, these days keep you humble.  We took a mid day break and had a shorelunch of trout caught the day before.  We also hiked a portage trail to another lake - it was one of the steepest, slipperiest portages I have ever been on.  Glad I didn't have a pack or canoe.  We had a great supper of bowties in pesto sauce with Northern Waters Smokehaus salamini.  We enjoyed a great fire and watched the nearly full moon rise over the lake.

The View From Under the Tarp

On Sunday we woke to a strong southwest wind - good news for once - we would have a tailwind back to civilization.  Camp was packed up and we reversed our route, enjoying some downhill portages this time.  It was a stiff wind and big waves on the last section of the route, but we made it to the tow boat pick up area safely.  Our ride was right on time and we were soon skipping across the lake.  At shore, we loaded up the truck enjoyed a nice lunch on the way home, and rolled into Duluth early in the evening.  It was another fun time.

Nature Moment: We enjoyed a lot of bird life on this trip and particularly enjoyed those that we get to see from Hawk's Ridge in Duluth.  All fall, raptors migrate south from northern Minnesota and Canada until they hit Lake Superior.  They don't want to cross the big water, so they funnel down the North Shore, wear they are observed and counted in an ongoing scientific analysis on Hawk's Ridge.  We were seeing the same species crossing the BWCA on our trip.  Eagles, osprey, vultures, and, in particularly high numbers, sharp shinned hawks.  

Hubs Flub: We had to set up a time for the Tow Boat to come pick us up on the last day.  2pm, we said.  As the Tow Boat pulled away and we loaded the canoe at the start of our paddle, I realized that we had no watch, phone, or other means of telling time.  Arriving back to the tow boat at 2pm might be a general goal...  Luckily, I discovered our emergency texting device did give a time on it, although we learned it was on Central Standard Time, one hour off.  

Quote of the Trip: "Got one."  This quote was repeated several times on Friday as we set the hook on another laker.  It was a fast fishing day.  

What Broke: It might be too early to tell, but my favorite canoeing depthfinder might be on its last legs.  It went blank for no reason at one point and at other times it read wildly changing depths, alternating between 5 and 105 feet, neither which of was correct.  I had to unplug and replug the transducer into the unit to get it to work.  Not sure why it isn't working right, the depthfinder is only 30 years old or so.  

Fallin' Behind

Anticipation

It seems that putting out a quarterly blog post is going to be the standard schedule.  That's not too bad.  So, just to catch up on the summer...

I was able to get out on Lake Superior in the Blue Sweetie several times in July after the June Camp Sh*tstorm trip.  I caught nothing.  The most I could muster was a couple bites.  I tried multiple locations - Duluth, Silver Bay, and Tofte.  Nothing.  Finally, early in August, I tried going out of Superior Wisconsin's entry.  Fishing in Wisconsin means I could fish three lines at a time.  By switching lures often on the three lines, I hoped to find a lucky one.  Success!  I caught three lake trout trolling a yellow spoon 45 feet down over 75 feet of water.  I went back shortly thereafter and caught a couple trout, including a dandy 36.5" laker (13-15lbs).  The big one came on a orange stickbait with a 4oz snap weight, off of an in-line planer board.  By myself, that was a crazy rig to fight the big fish on, but I managed to land it.  The next time out, I got skunked.  The pattern had changed.

Late in August, I went to try and re-find the fish.  Luckily, I ran into a chatty guy at the dock who said he was getting trout on purple spoons, 60 feet down over 90 feet.  I figured it might be a red herring, but what the heck, that is where I went.  I did not think I had any purple spoons, but I found a blue one with white spots in my tackle box.  Boom - I caught six lake trout that day.  Fun.  Went back a day or two later and caught three more lakers.  Went out the next morning and caught 2 more trout, including a 26" one.  All the fish came on the blue spoon with white spots of the downrigger.  The Colonel went out with his wife one day trying blue spoons and got skunked.  On Labor Day weekend, my Mother In Law and Brother In Law were in town for a visit.  We tried some fishing.  This is when they informed me that my blue spoon with white spots was actually purple with pink spots.  Oops.  Colorblindness.  We got blown of the lake that day with no bites.

The next time I went out I caught several more trout and got up close and personal with a 1,000 foot ore boat on the big lake.  Finally, in mid-September, I made a run 8 miles out onto Lake Superior to a new spot I felt confident with.  It was a good hunch - I caught nine lake trout, including a 32" fish.  A great day.  The Blue Sweetie had its first double, I had two fish on at the same time.  I just let one rod bounce away in the rod holder while I landed the other fish.  Turns out the second rod had the 32" trout on it.  All nine fish came on the same purple spoon with pink spots.

So, it ended up a good summer on Lake Superior.  I hope to make it out maybe one more time before I put the boat away.

Sharing the Shipping Lane