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

Easy Does It: Camp Sh*torm 2015

Schedules determined that the annual Camp Sh*tstorm Canoe Trip would be a couple less nights this year.  Therefore, we decided to take a shorter, easier route in order to maximize our time to fish.

Day 1: We took off from Duluth headed north on Saturday morning (June 20, 2015).  We had an extra vehicle in our party so that a couple friends could complete a cross-Quetico trip from the end of the Gunflint Trail.  We were delayed at the border due to a high volume of vehicles crossing into Canada, but we made it to the Ranger Station in time to get our permit.  We loaded up the canoes late in the afternoon.  On the trip were: Myself (Private Phillips & Group Leader); Tick Check (Assistant to the Group Leader); Fran Tarkington Fan; The Colonel; Wear-Some-Shorts; The Bull; The Freshman; and Corporal Cuervo.  The Corporal was new to Camp Sh*tstorm, but familiar to some of us from other trips and we knew he would fit in.

We paddled across the first lake to the first portage, a carry of moderate length, but well maintained.  Tick Check enjoyed carrying his brand new Northwind kevlar and carbon canoe.  It was light and fast.  We loaded up the canoes again on the other side of the portage and broke out our trolling rods.  The Corporal and I caught only a walleye and a few bass on the way to the first campsite, but the others caught several lake trout coming across.  Once into the targeted bay, we found our friends Lieutenant Dan and Farmer Troy with their camp set up.  It was good thing we arrived when we did, as they had just finished their supply of bourbon.  We resupplied them and they joined us in our camp as we set up the tents and kitchen.  They joined us for supper, Northern Waters Smokehaus real German bratwurst.  Very, very good with sauerkraut and mustard.  Around the camp fire we heard about the other fellows' big trip crossing the Quetico.  They reported that walleye fishing was very good early in the trip and lake trout were cooperative at the end, a good sign for us.

Day 2: We woke up to a sunny, nice day on Day 2.  Lt. Dan and the Farmer headed out of the park to the vehicle we had brought up for them.  They will have to return the favor one day.  It was a partly cloudy, breezy day that seemed to be under constant threat of rain, but it never did.  It took a while for the Corporal and I to get warmed up, but we finally found a few nice lake trout over a deep basin.  We also caught a few random walleyes.  Returning to camp, we learned that others had did fairly well for walleyes and bass, but the trout were tight lipped.  The big story, however, was Fran Fan's big pike, his Personal Best northern, which was was over 40" in length, a real bruiser.  He returned it to the lake to grow even bigger.  Tick Check led the supper preparations with "freestyle" lake trout, steaks, asparagus, and red wine.  Perfect.

Fran Fan's Monster Pike

Day 3: We packed up camp under darkening skies, and, sure enough, a soaking rain started just after we took to the lake in our canoes.  There was no lightning, however, so we just continued to paddle and fish our way through a long narrows between major lake basins.  I was paired up with Fran Fan this day and we started out with some decent walleyes and bass, but most of the action was courtesy of small to medium sized northern pike.  These unwanted "hammer handles" went for my baits in particular.  Each time I thought I had a decent walleye on, it would turn out to be a pike.  Oh well, it was fast action anyways.  Once into deeper water, Fran Fan turned on his lake trout magnet.  He caught several nice trout in just one pass through a 100+ feet deep basin.  I hooked zero.  It happened enough that I was a bit perplexed.  We had very similar lures, we were at similar depths, and we were (obviously) going the same speed.  In the end I decided that his success was simply because he was in the front of the canoe...the fish saw his lure before they saw mine.  That is at least something I can tell myself to make it feel better.  Others had had less trout action but landed plenty of pike, walleyes, and bass.  We set up camp on a big island site in the continued rain.   We put up three rain tarps to ward off the elements, and just before supper, the skies cleared enough to let us cook and put tents up without being rained on.  It was fried fish alongside dirty rice that evening.  The clouds cleared up completely just before midnight and we were amazed to see...  You'll have to wait for the Nature Moment at the end of this report to find out.

Day 4: It was sunny and pleasant the next morning.  As we enjoyed breakfast we were visited by a couple of Ontario rangers, a first for us in the Quetico.  This was even more notable because I actually knew one of the rangers through my work.  I introduced him and his young female assistant to the fellas and we had a few laughs with coffee.  They went on their way shortly and we got ready to fish.  I was paired up with the Bull.  We caught a couple nice trout right away, but then the bite eluded us.  We even checked out the pool below a major rapids and there were no fish home.  Just after lunch, a fairly big storm moved in with heavy wind, rain, and lightning.  It didn't last long though, so our wait on shore was short.  We only saw a few pellets, but others in our group fishing further north had been hailed on pretty heavily.  We fished out way back towards camp with no bites.  I wasn't real surprised, storms seem to discourage fish from eating.  Near camp, we were again hit by a thunderstorm.  This one had more rain, but less wind and no hail. We again waited it out.  Afterwards, the Bull caught another trout and this time, it went on the stringer.  We headed back to camp and rehung the tarps - the wind from the first storm knocked them all down.  Everyone arrived back to camp just as another thunderstorm hit, but it again wasn't real strong.  It was Thai coconut curry rice with trout that night - I think that is my favorite meal of the trip.

Stormy Day

Day 5: It was sprinkling as we packed up and headed out onto the lake on a travel day.  I was back with the Corporal and we caught a couple lakers before going through a long, narrow, and very shallow, narrows into a deep, but stained lake.  We scouted campsites and one of them was occupied, the first people we had seen in a long time.  We settled on a very nice site near an incoming rapids.  After setting up camp, including a screen house to ward off bugs, we took advantage of the warm temps to jump in the lake and wash up.  Refreshed, we cleaned some bass and walleyes for fried fish with macaroni and cheese.  The mac and cheese was stellar with a slightly different blend of cheeses this year.  It was a quiet night.

Day 6: None of us had ever been to this lake, so we set up to fish and explore the next morning.  Seeing its stained water, we surmised it would be a good walleye lake, and it didn't disappoint.  We caught a bunch of the golden fish by jigging on points and sunken islands.  I fished with Wear-Some-Shorts and we were able to get caught up on each other's lives.  It threatened to storm again a couple different times during the day, but the rain seemed to just miss us each time.  We got the fish cleaned and had fried fish with mashed potatoes.  Very good again.

Day 7: It didn't have any portages, but Day 7 was a long paddle to the next campsite.  Everyone fished as they went and a decent number of lake trout were caught.  I piloted Tick Check's nice new canoe and I must say I really liked it.  Lots of space, but still pretty fast.  We were glad for the relatively calm winds as we had to cross several big basins of open water.  We secured a sand beach campsite under tall pines.  Everyone was able to scrub off the day's grime again and some even snuck in naps.  It was the traditional last night meal of pesto pasta that night.  Delicious.  The Colonel really does a great job of cooking.

Sand Beach Sunset

Day 8: We got up early on the last day, packed up, and headed for the landing.  The landing was not the one we used on the way in, but the Lt. and Farmer had agreed to drop off one of our vehicles at the parking lot.  We just didn't know where the parking lot was.  After getting some help from a friendly ranger, we did find my truck, and after running to get the other car and getting everything packed, we hit the road to home.  After a lunch stop, we arrived in Duluth late in the afternoon.  We all said our goodbyes and I held the annual leftover food auction.  We did pretty well this year and didn't have too many items that needed a good home.  It was another great trip with good friends and a lot of laughs.  I am grateful I am a part of such a good group and have the means to go on such adventures.  One more highlight: When I got home I discovered that My Wonderful Bride had painted the entire exterior of the house.  Wow!  What a week!

Nature Moment: As hinted at, as we were walking to our beds at the end of Day 3, the clouds suddenly parted and we were treated to an amazing display of northern lights. The aurora spread shimmering across the entire sky, dancing and shooting all directions as far as the eye could see.  We all stayed up an extra hour taking in the show.  

Hubs Flub: On rainy Day 3, I was using a borrowed sponge to soak up rainwater and get it out of the canoe.  I was in the process of using the sponge when I had a jolting strike on my trolled lure.  I set the hook and fought the fish, disappointed to see another small northern pike on my line.  I got it unhooked and released, then reset my line and began trolling again.  After a bit, I went to sponge out some more rainwater, but couldn't find the sponge.  Looked all around...where the heck (cursing isn't allowed on this trip) did it go?  Nowhere to be found.  Replayed the events in my mind and realized I must have dropped it in the lake when I set the hook on the pike.  Now I owe someone a sponge.  

Quote of the Trip: There were multiple candidates for this, including "I love sleeping" (Me, stating what the others had already determined), but the winner came from the Colonel: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  That is what he screamed when he was rinsing fish fillets in the lake from a shoreline rock and a massive snapping turtle suddenly appeared inches from his hand, making a play for the fish.  A bit unnerving, apparently.   

What Broke: My wife always asks, whenever I come home from a trip, "What broke this time?"  Not a real vote of confidence, but it is probably warranted.  This trip, most everything came back unscathed.  My old bent shaft paddle that is used as spare finally gave up the ghost and its slats started to detach from each other.  17 years of use probably is a good run for it, as it was my primary paddle for 15 of those years and I used to paddle about every other weekend.  Tick Check's new propane stove started leaking at the fuel feed, but that is easily replaced.  I do need to start thinking about a new solo tent, as it is also 17 years old and UV rays are starting to take their toll.  

L to R: Wear-Some-Shorts, Private Phillips, Tick Check, The Colonel, Corporal Cuervo, The Freshman, and The Bull, photo by Fran Fan

Spring Catch Up

Superkid's Lake Superior Charter Service on the Blue Sweetie

Once again, I am falling behind on the blog posts.  Between work, a house remodel, and a new boat, I haven't had much time!  Here is a catch up on the outdoor pursuits this late winter and spring.

Ice fishing round up: After the big January trip, lake trout fishing really slowed down.  I fished Burntside Lake near Ely with two friends on a Sunday, but we only got one trout between 3 of us.  Later in Feburary, a friend's bachelor party was held near Ely again, but the conditions were so cold and windy that virtually no fishing was done.  Two subsequent winter camping trips in March had me seeing very poor fishing, with only a few trout.  It was surprising, as ice and weather conditions were really good.

I picked up our new 16' Lund Fury with 25hp 4 stroke Honda from the dealer in late April.  It took quite a bit of time to outfit it with my add ons, including rod holders, a base for a downrigger, depth finder, GPS holder, line cleats, and more.  Finally got it out in early May onto Lake Superior.  The motor wasn't quite working right and we didn't get any bites.  Took it out again a couple days later on the big lake, and it still wasn't quite right.  It was a nice day, though and Bergen seems to enjoy boat rides.  Took the boat back to the the dealer that next week and it turns out the motor wasn't synced up quite right by the factory.

Got out one more time on the big lake after the motor was fixed and it worked well, but I lost the only fish I hooked after fighting it for a good bit of time.  Probably a good thing to lose the first fish hooked in a new boat...get it out of the way.  On a subsequent warm early May day, the Chief and I headed out on the big lake again and caught several lake trout and salmon.  We were in his boat though, so the Blue Sweetie was still fishless.  I went out with My Wonderful Bride and Superkid on the Blue Sweetie the next morning to the exact same spot and caught nothing.  And the motor wasn't quite working right again.

Took the boat back to the dealer and he made one more adjustment.  We backed it into the water, still on the trailer, to see how it performed.  It seemed to be right.  On the way off of the landing, I heard a hissing sound and watched one of the boat trailer tires go flat in about 30 seconds.  Luckily I had just bought a spare.  I took into town to get it fixed and then went to get gas down the road.  I had noticed that the spare tire was a bit under inflated, so I made some goofy maneuvers to get the tire in place to the air hose at the gas station.  Before I could even get out of the truck, I was approached by a game warden.  He stated that my maneuvers in the parking lot were suspicious considering I had just seen him.  I said I didn't see him, I was just getting air.  He seemed to buy that, but then pointed out I had left the plug in the boat and I didn't have registration numbers on the bow.  OMG, I thought, on top of having to take a brand new boat back to the dealer (90 miles one way) twice and then getting a flat tire, that I was going to get a couple tickets, too?

I explained that it was new boat and that I had just gotten the registration from the State that very day.  He seemed to accept that as well.  The explanation about the plug being in because I had simply backed the boat in on the trailer and didn't run it was not acceptable, but he only gave me a warning ticket.  Whew!  The drive home was uneventful.

The next time I got the boat on to Lake Superior, I was all alone at the landing, hoping the warm water had drifted north enough to bring the salmon north.  It had - I caught 3 salmon and lost 2 within the first hour of trolling in the Blue Sweetie.  Success!  It was shaping up to be a stellar day, but then the wind picked up and blew the warm water away from shore.  It was too windy to chase it in my small boat.  Oh well.  Made it out one more time after that when a hometown friend was up.  We caught only one salmon, but it was again very fun.

The week after that (June 20-27) was the annual Camp Sh*tstorm Canoe Trip.  Watch for a report on that soon.

North of the Border

January means lake trout through the ice, my all-time favorite fishing method.  This year mid-January found me (the Private), the Captain, the Chief, the Colonel, and Rocket Man all headed north of the border.  About an hour into Ontario, we parked the trucks and trailers and reorganized everything onto the snowmachines.

"Winter Canoes"

From the parking lot we went on snowmachine another 20 miles on logging roads and trails to the lodge.  Our favorite hangout has 4 cabins, a sauna, and two friendly owners that do a great job with upkeep and hospitality.  Despite its remoteness, generators give us lights at night and even a hot shower.  Pretty cushy compared to some of our spots.  We settled into the cabin as the sun set.  Wood heat feels nice after a pretty chilly ride in.  The forecast, however, called for a warming trend, raising our fishing hopes.  The traditional first night supper of Northern Waters Smokehaus ribs and homemade sauerkraut set the tone (and the smell) for the first evening.

Not exactly like my canvas winter camping tent...

On Saturday morning, it was a quick packing of the fishing gear and we hit the ice on the snowmachines headed down the massive, island studded lake to our favorite spots.  I set up with the Colonel and the Chief on a sunken island in the middle of the lake's main basin.  This was the exact spot (gotta like GPS) where I caught 12 trout in 4 hours the year before.  Well, the action was fast again, but this year I managed to lose a few fish on the way up and some of the bites were whitefish, not lake trout.  No complaining - we love to eat whitefish, an under-appreciated species.  It was nice enough weather that I did a little trolling on my snowmachine outside the portable shack and caught a few trout off a rock wall as well.  I think I ended with 7 fish for the day.  The other fellas had similar luck and Rocket Man landed a 31" laker off an island.  It ended up as the biggest fish of the trip.  We got checked by the Ontario wardens-a Saturday tradition-with no issues and even some compliments...everyone loves the rod box my dad built me a couple years ago...maybe could sell a few to some Canadians, eh?  The fun day ended with fried trout and whitefish, spaghetti, and a sauna.  

Sunday was a bit chillier, but the sun came out for a bit.  I set up in a new spot on a super steep wall.  I had been there a bit with no action and thought about moving when it kicked in-another epic day of laker fishing.  Lots of bites, lots of fish that fought their way off the hook, but I still managed to land 11 trout for the day.  The biggest was 29 inches.  The others had slower luck, so the Chief ended up moving near me and ended up with a better afternoon than I did.  The Colonel was snakebit, getting only 2 trout all day.  The others did okay.  It was, get this, a braised venison shoulder that had been slow-cooked all day for supper.  20 miles in by snowmachine.  Amazing.  A sauna fit the bill again that night and the hot shower felt great.  

Monday found the Chief and I setting off on our own to another unproven spot while others settled on familiar honey holes.  I'd say that it was a slow fishing day, but the Chief, only a hundred yards away, had a great day, getting multiple dandies approaching 30 inches.  I started the day with a decent trout, but then, a rare event ice fishing, my white tube jig got snagged on the bottom.  I yanked it around, but had to break it off.  Tied on another jig, dropped it down, and...got snagged again.  This time it came free, but I can take a hint, so I pulled stakes and moved to a different spot.  A bit of a screw up (see Hubs Flub below) resulted in my fishing a structureless flat.  It produced no fish for the afternoon.  I moved again, after taking pictures of the Chief's big fish, but still no action.  Finally, as I was packing up before dusk, I had a big strike.  It took a bit to land him, but I got a nice 29" trout.  I decided that it would be a good one to bring home and feed the family with (and two neighbor families, too).  It had my white tube jig pretty deep, so I reached in with my hemostats and pulled the hook free and set the jig on the floor.  I then reached in and unhooked my white tube jig out of it mouth.  Wait.  I had already unhooked it.  What the hell, why are there two of my tube jigs in its mouth?  No joking, the second tube jig I pulled out of it was the one I had snagged and broke off that morning.  Somehow that fish had dug out that jig with its salted minnow on it and ate it, then 6 hours later and 75 yards away, I caught it and got my jig back.  Crazy.  Others had very good luck that day - the Colonel had his best day ever, hitting double digits.  It was fish tacos for dinner - really tasty with fresh herbs and chopped radishes.  

Chief with a nice trout

On Tuesday, the Chief had to take off for home, so we bid him adieu and the rest of us hit the lake again.  It was calm and warm and misty...not a real "trouty" day.  The fishing was slow for us all...except the Colonel.  He tried a new spot and again had tons of action.  I ended up with only 2 trout, I think Rocket Man only had a couple, and Captain only had 4.  The Colonel was into double-digits again.  One trout was more memorable than the rest...  Turns out he decided to do some trolling outside his house.  As he was jigging about 75 yards away, he gets a funny feeling bite.  He reels up to find he had hooked a fishing line.  There was some evidence of other people fishing in that area previously, so he assumes they had broken off the line.  Then he realizes there is a fish on the end of the line.  He hand over hand reeled it in and landed the trout.  It had swallowed the hook.  There was a bobber on the line as well.  So he starts pulling on the other end of the line to get it out of the water and he feels resistance.  He pulled and pulled and finally came to a stop.  The line was snagged.  He realized that someone must have lost their entire rod down the hole and the rod was hung up.  He pulled hard to break it off and it gave a bit.  He pulled some more and he felt it give again and start up to him.  Sure enough, after pulling a while, up comes a perfectly good rod and reel.  How neat is that? But, wait...he looks at the rod and realizes it is very familiar.  It is just like a rod he owns.  Just like the one that he left in his portable shack with a plain hook with a minnow on it, with a bobber, and the bail open so a fish wouldn't pull it down the hole while he was gone...  That's right, he had caught his own pole.  He had left it deployed in the house, a trout bit the minnow, happened to swim to where he was jigging 75 yards away, he caught the line, he pulled in the fish, then he pulled on his line until all of it had come off his reel spool and then he jerked on it until the entire rod and reel tipped over and went down the hole and then he reeled in his own rod and reel in a different hole.  Lucky...or something else?  It was worth some pretty good laughs, anyway.  We had leftover venison sandwiches that night.  Still very good.

Wednesday morning we packed, cleaned up the cabin, settled bill and hit the trail.  It was an uneventful ride out.  At the parking lot, we discovered my snowmachine tiedown on trailer had stripped out, but with some extra straps and ingenuity, we got it secured.  We rolled into Duluth about 5pm.  It was a very good trip again with lots of fish and lots of laughs.  We were lucky that we didn't catch a January deep freeze, making the snowmachine riding pleasant.  We already scheduled the cabin for the same weekend next year.  

Nature Moment: We found out later that the Chief's ride out the day before the rest of us left was eventful, as he had to yield to three moose.  Going around a corner and encountering a moose is a real danger on a snowmachine, but he avoided injury. 

Hubs Flub: So after I had gotten snagged that day, I moved to a new spot.  I was checking depths by shooting my sonar right through the ice, and found 45 feet, then moved bit further and found 48 feet, then a bit further and found 51 feet, then a bit further and found 104 feet!  Wow, an underwater cliff!  I set up on the top of it in 50 feet.  This structure was not on the map.  After a while and no bites I started to think...can it really be 104 feet so close by?  I rechecked it.  52 feet.  The sonar, as it will do once in a while, had double sounded.  I was on no structure at all.  Wasted most of the afternoon.  

Quote of the Trip: "Hey wait a minute, this is MY rod!"

New Feature! What Broke: My wife always asks, whenever I come home from a trip, "What broke this time?"  Not a real vote of confidence, but it is probably warranted.  As stated, the trailer tie down stripped out.  That will require replacing all the hardware.  Also, there was a sauerkraut spill in the oven that smoked us out of the cabin for a bit, but I don't think there was permanent damage.  Everything else seemed to perform well, including my snowmachine, and the new electric auger I got for Christmas and my birthday worked great.  

Safety First When in Canada

Fall and Early Winter Catch Up

After a great canoe trip in September, I had a pretty busy fall and didn't get much fishing in.  I made it out one weekend in October for hiking trail stream trout.  One of my favorite annual events, shorefishing lakes for stocked stream trout in the fall, is easy and comfortable.  Fishing wasn't nearly as good as it was last year, but I still had a couple tasty trout meals.

Ice arrived early this year and Sportsbar, our ice fishing shack, was deployed in early December.  And what a start it was!  Captain K set the hook on the first bite of the year in the shack and tussled with a massive pike for about 15 minutes before landing the 44 inch behemoth!  What a riot.  "Tank" the pike was released to bite again.

Tank the Pike

Once Tank was cleared out of the way, we enjoyed a great December of fishing with lots of keeper perch showing up.  They were nice, non-wormy, fillets that, when dipped in my secret batter and some panko crumbs and fried, tasted awesome.  A few crappies were mixed in with the perch as well.  Some "normal" sized pike were also invited home for dinner.  We've discovered that when you fillet a pike like you would a walleye, leaving the hated "Y-bones" in the fillet, and then put the fillets through a food grinder, you can make a great fish patty.  The Y-bones grind up and actually help hold the patty together.  Pike burgers are a big hit here in Duluth.  

Unfortunately, the Sportsbar bite disappeared as we went into January.  The lack of snow means the ice is getting really thick and oxygen is dropping, slowing the fish way down.  It was fun while it lasted, though.  Overall, fall and early winter were fun.  

The Perfect BWCA Weekend

I had a great little BWCA canoe trip on the last weekend of September.  The weather was perfect, the lake trout were biting, and the company was entertaining.  It was my first actual BWCA canoe trip with a somewhat new friend, whom, at least until he earns (through some misfortune) a real nickname, we'll call "the Basement Brewer."

Thursday morning, we took off from Duluth and headed up the North Shore and then inland to a favorite spot.  After packing the canoe and making a decent paddle, we rigged up our lake trout gear and trolled our way to our preferred campsite.  The day was gray, but calm and fairly warm.  The Basement Brewer jumped out to a quick lead in the fishing department by connecting on a couple lakers using what we came to call "The Black Spotted Spoon of Death."  It ended up being the only trout lure he fished with all weekend and for good reason.  The spacious camp was welcoming and we set up our tents and rain tarps at a leisurely pace.  More trout were caught, mostly by the Brewer on his favorite lure, that afternoon.  The skies were clearing off by suppertime and the fried trout and dirty rice dish hit the spot.  The night was topped off with shooting stars and some northern lights.  

Friday was a gorgeous day.  We trolled for trout with great success, with the nod still going to the Black Spotted Spoon of Death as the hot lure.  We had a shore lunch and played around with the camp northern, a moderately sized pike that insisted on stealing our baits when fishing from shore.  Later, we tried some walleye fishing without success, but the trout obliged all day.  A great day was capped off with brats and sauer kraut for supper, a true northwoods day.  

Saturday was sunny, but quite breezy.  We had decided to do a fairly lengthy day trip to check out an new lake and we stuck with the plan despite our fishing success near camp.  The trip involved two moderate portages and a couple miles of paddling.  The wind kind of hampered our trolling runs, but we still made several passes through trout water, getting only one laker.  We did have the best snack break ever on a nice sand beach, thanks to the Brewer sneaking in some Northern Waters Smokehaus smoked fish and hard cheese.  We tried for walleyes on the entire way back to camp and only caught one hammerhandle pike.  That night we had a great supper of NWS Salamini and gnocchi in a creamy sundried tomato and red pepper sauce.  

Sunday dawned sunny still and warm.  It was beautiful again.  We got the gear packed up and loaded in the canoe.  We slowly trolled our way through the maze of islands on the way out, getting some more trout on the Spoon.  It was hard to leave when we got to the landing, it was so nice out.  We ran into some friends (the Colonel and Rocket Man) at a restaurant on the way home, and they reported they also had good trout fishing with the bonus of good grouse hunting.

There was a traffic jam in Two Harbors as the fall colors and beautiful day brought out many travelers.  We took some back roads around the mess and rolled into Duluth around 6pm.  It was a great trip.

Nature Moment: We had lots of interactions with eagles, loons and mergansers, and the good year for garter snakes continued, but in the fall, the rodents rule.  We had lots of friends in camp when the sun went down.  Our favorite is the long tailed, big eared, white-footed mouse.  They like to throw some hops into their movements, reminding us of mini-kangaroos.  They hopped around camp getting into the garbage bag once in a while, but for the most part minding their own business.

Quote of the Trip: Sunday morning as we slowly packed up, enjoying the warm sunshine, the Brewer looked at me and said, "I feel sorry for anyone that isn't in the Boundary Waters right now."  I agreed.

Hubs' Flub: Well, the title of this post is "The Perfect BWCA Weekend" - I can't think of a single flub!

Summer Fun

Once again, it has been some time since my last post...it has been a very busy summer and fall.  Here is a recap of my summer adventures.  

In June and July, I had some opportunities on calm days to fish Lake Superior right here in Duluth.  I got out about five times.  The big lake was a bit goofy this year because of the late spring and lingering cold water temps.  Fishing was overall quite slow, but we did get a couple fish (lake trout and coho salmon) most times out.  Even with slow fishing, there is something about fishing Lake Superior that makes it fun...maybe it is just the expanse of it all.  

A late July trip up to the Gunflint Trail was had with a friend that is a college student.  His younger perspective kept conversations interesting and we had good fishing for lake trout when the weather cooperated.  

In early August, My Wonderful Bride and I met up with some friends after dropping the Wonder Kid off for "Cousins Camp" with my folks.  We and our friends camped at a Wisconsin State Park near Hudson.  We had a lot of fun, despite some car trouble and a trip to urgent care for an eye infection.  We also were not impressed with Wisconsin State Parks.  The sites were overcrowded, the attractions were overcrowded, and, most notably, the restrooms were overcrowded.  We understood how busy weekends can be tough for staff to keep up with, but the toilet and shower conditions were deplorable.  Three facilities serving nearly 200 campsites is not enough.  The bathrooms were not cleaned one time in three days and became quite gross.  Oh well, we still had a lot of laughs.  

Later in August, we joined two other neighborhood families at Fall Lake National Forest Campground near Ely.  What a difference from our previous camping experience!  Fall Lake is compact, but not crowded, the bathrooms were impeccable, there isn't a speck of litter anywhere, and staff was super friendly.  The kids (all three families have only girls) had a great time fishing, swimming, running around, and enjoying campfires.  Everyone had a blast and we can't wait to do it again...in fact, an idea sprouted during the trip that is now growing on its own...more details another time.

My nephew and his dad came up one weekend to fish as well.  We did the always fun drift down a local river.  It offers rapids and smallmouth bass on nearly every cast.  The highlight was my nephew tying into a couple nice channel catfish that really wore out his arms.  

Finally I capped the summer off with a labor day weekend trip with my buddy Chief Many-Little-Bottles.  We took his boat to BWCA motor lake and trolled for lake trout.  The trout were not at all cooperative, but, as always, we had a great time with good food and lots of laughs.  

Our Ultimate Family Camping Kitchen

Motorboat Camping is a Good Change of Pace

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.  

Back in the Saddle (or Whatever a Snowmobile Seat is Called)

20 Inches of Amazingly Clear Canadian Ice

I must apologize to my faithful readers about the long delay in posting my adventures.  December turned out to be a non-fishing month.  Ice fishing started out with great clear ice, but three short day trips resulted in no fish.  I then wandered up to the Gunflint Trail for a day and found a few nice walleyes and jumbo perch.  Just after that, It started snowing.  And didn't stop for three days.  One of the biggest storms in our history dumped 30 inches of snow on the relatively thin ice.  Snow weighs down the ice, water comes up the cracks, snow insulates, keeping the water from freezing on top of the ice.  Slush.  Lots of sticky, cold, watery glue.  Ice fishing ground to a halt.  I didn't make it out fishing again until January...but that trip made up for the poor December.

January 10, 2014

Early morning.  Cold and cloudy, but way warmer than previous seven days in Duluth that never made it out of negative temperatures.  The forecast said we timed our trip perfectly, we were about to hit a warm spell.  I had been wondering when the other foot would fall regarding our luck, but my ominous feeling had been dispelled when I hit a deer the night before.  With my WIFE'S CAR.  I never drive that thing and the one time I do...  Anyway, my fear of issues were alleviated.  

I picked up the Colonel and we met the Captain and the Chief where we hitched up the snowmachine trailers.  Everything went smoothly and we began on our way northwest.    The drive was uneventful, and we went right through Canadian customs, so we made great time, it was 9am.  Then, tragedy.  The Canadian beer store didn't open until 10am!  The humanity!  We did an inventory and determined that, yes, we would wait for the store to open.  It was then that a couple of people got picky and wanted to look for a different brand of beer at a different store.  Long story short, we ended up getting an unintentional tour of Ontario.  We finally started our way north again, but not until I took this entertaining video I've titled "Canadian Bacon."  

We finally got pointed northwest again and cruised up a typical Canadian roadway - ice covered, lots of logging trucks, hills, curves. It started with a sign the signified a downhill at an 8% grade.  The sign immediately after it said "Sharp Curve."  Nice.  We made it safely to the next turn and now headed east on a icy gravel road.  It was a bit slower, but we soon found ourselves at a little parking lot.  It took some time to organize our gear in the sleds behind our four snowmachines, but soon we were on our via a new mode.  The first part of the snowmobile route was on a summertime road, plenty of width and the hills and curves were not extreme.  After a major delay (see Hubs' Flub at the end of this post), we soon turned off the wide road and headed off on a rougher trail with lots of small but steep hills and sharp curves.  The snowmachine ride was about 25 miles, and with the delay, it was nearly dark when we arrived at the well kept, isolated lodge on a bay of a very large lake.  We met the owner and she directed us to our cabin.  It was very nice with electric lights, a very efficient wood stove, and several bunks.  The siding and windows were newer and the wood heat reached all the rooms.  The running water was shut off for the winter, but lake water had been brought up for our use after boiling.  We unpacked the gear, had a toast to good luck, and settled in for the night with the Colonel's awesome smoked ribs.  

January 11, 2014

It was warm (for January in Canada) and cloudy when woke.  We are not the ball of fire, get up with the sun type of anglers and lake trout's friendly "banker's hours" fits our style.  So we were the last group out of camp (there were two other parties) and we cruised out of the bay on our snowmachines to the main part of the lake.  We chose a spot pretty far down the lake and I set up my fish house on the edge of a steep drop off.  The Captain chose a sloping point and the Chief and the Colonel chose the top of a reef.  I set up my tip up, got the fish house heater going and settled in, setting my breakfast burrito onto the heater to warm up.  It was nearly 10am.  I didn't get to eat the burrito until 1pm.  I had a lake trout feeding frenzy.  I steadily jigged up laker after laker.  If I wasn't fighting one, I was seeing one eyeing my bait on the fish finder.  All the fish we nice fat, healthy specimens.  I ended up catching 12 and losing 4 at the hole.  Each one was a hard fighter and none came up the hole quickly.  The smallest ones were about 22 inches and the biggest was 27 inches.  Not huge, but a great average size.  The frenzy slowed at 1pm, and I didn't get anything between 2pm and sunset just after 4pm.  It was a blast.  The other guys were not seeing the same action, but after moving to new spots more similar to mine, they did get a few fish.  The Captain was a little ways farther away and he reported fast action in the afternoon.  So, it was a pretty good day all around.  It had remained gray and windy and in fact one wind burst actually lifted the Colonel's fish house off the ice and he had to chase it down as it tumbled down the lake.  We got it back into shape and it was still serviceable, but its days are numbered.  Can anyone find us a quality fish house that is lightweight, handles wind, you can stand up in it, and it easily transported by someone that usually walks, not snowmobiles, to fishing holes? We got back to camp and chatted about our days.  Unfortunately the celebration was cut short.  The lodge owner came up to our cabin with a note for the Colonel to call home immediately (the lodge had a satellite connection).  I am sure it was a long walk for him from our cabin to the office.  I went and checked on him after a bit and learned that there was a medical emergency on his wife's side of the family on the west coast.  They talked over their options and in the end they found homes for their kids to go to, she was able to fly out west, and he decided to keep fishing.  We enjoyed our favorite lake trout curry and rice that night.

January 12, 2014

It was another gray, but warm (25 degrees!) day as we decided to head to a point closer to camp.  I set up in a bay on a reef that was very similar to the hot spot the day before, and the other three fellows spread out on the point.  I immediately caught a decent trout.  Here we go again, I thought...but that was the last action I had at that spot.  The others were catching fish, not hyper fast, but steady action, on the point.  I moved to a steep bay mouth.  Nothing.  I finally tossed my pride and moved in on the point near the others.  I started on the point about 2pm...right when the fish quit biting the day before.  It was not a repeat.  Between 2pm and 4pm I managed to get 7 trout, including another nice 27 incher that literally bit when I was reeling up to quit fishing.  Another great day.  The others had steadily caught fish all day, so it was good all around.  It was a sauna, a shower, and lake trout jambalaya that night.  One of the fun parts of the first two days of fishing was the ice.  I have never been on such clear ice that was that thick.  Once we cleared off the fluffy snow, it was 20 inches of pure glass, hardly a bubble.  We could watch our jigs below the ice and we could see the fish come up from the bottom.  I tried to make a hard hitting documentary film describing the ice, but the fellas and their walkie-talkies got in the way...

January 13, 2014

Yet another cloudy day greeted us as we cruised to another bay of the lake in the morning.  We set up back in the bay aways and the ice wasn't clear in this spot.  I caught a few fish, lost a few fish.  I caught my first non-trout, a largish (10lbs?) northern pike.  I spotted it on the fish finder hanging out just under my feet only a few feet from the ice, even though I was in 33 feet of water.  I reeled up to it, and it hit with only a few feet of line between my rod and the lure.  We call those "Vexilar Fish" - fish that you would not have caught if you didn't have the sonar unit.  Others had more luck than I did, with the Colonel having the most action and the Captain wrangling the biggest trout of the trip, a 30 incher.  The temperature dropped throughout the day and headed back below zero that night as we enjoyed a pasta dish.

January 14, 2014

We got up relatively early on the first sunny day of the trip.  It was crisp outside as we packed up, but the sun felt great.  We coordinated our ride out with the lodge owner, as she didn't want to be making the ride by herself for safety's sake.  It took a little longer than normal (see Hubs' Flub) but before too long we were at the truck, loading up, and heading back to the USA.  Everything went smoothly and I was greeted at home as a conquering hero - like always.  

It was a great trip with really good fishing.  The ride in is long, so we decided that to do this trip right, we really needed to add another day to it.  Otherwise, it doesn't justify the long drive.  Wouldn't you agree, Honey?

Nature Moment: There really wasn't a notable wildlife sighting on this trip.  The realities of the Canadian forest in the heart of winter is that you really only will ever see a few active animals.  Ravens are the most common and they love to use multiple loud calls.  Right above your head when you are in your fish house trying to nap.  The snow reveals that other critters are in the area, but the fox, otters, wolves, moose, and lynx are rarely actually seen.  

Hubs' Flub: Well, as you may have figured out from the hints in the trip narrative, this one was interesting.  As we were cruising on the snowmachines on the first day, going to the lodge, I headed over a hill and my machine just died.  No warning, just going and then quiet.  It was mile 18 of the 25 mile ride.  Not good.  I futzed around with it a bit but it would not start.  I could tell the fuel pump sounded weak and it appeared it was not getting fuel to the engine.  I racked my brain and said, "yup, it won't go."  Despite my auto repair family history, this is usually the diagnosis I give every breakdown.  We moved the machine to the side of the trail, rearranged the gear sleds, reorganized ourselves, doubled up on one machine, and continued on to the lodge.  We discussed it, I grumbled, and decided to forget about it until we could do something about it.  Worst case scenario, we would pull it off the trail, put a tarp over it, and come back for it in the summer.  By the next morning I had decided that the issue was the engine not recharging the battery and the fuel pump had exhausted the stored charge in the battery.  To tell you the truth, the recharging system may have never worked since I bought it...I may have never ran the machine enough to draw down the charge before I recharged the battery at home.  I chatted with the lodge owner and determined she had a portable generator and a battery charger.  Simple, I thought, we use the generator to charge the battery, and we drive it on out to the truck.  So on the day we left, that is what we did.  Less than an hour of charging got us all the way out.  Whew.  Could have been worse.

Quote of the Trip: "24 incher"....."25 incher"....."22 incher"....."27 incher"...."23 incher"... We usually make a radio call to the other guys whenever we catch a trout and we report its approximate length.  During that crazy first day feeding frenzy I pretty much took over the airwaves and made an announcement every 10 minutes as I released yet another trout.  Pretty damn fun.