Crooked Lake Fishing Trip Report, May 26th– 29th, 2020
By Eric Glasson
For the last six years, a group of my high school and college buddies have ventured into the Boundary Waters to chase fish at the earliest opportunity – fishing opener weekend. It has become a tradition, which we were very disappointed to break this year. 2020 was the first year since we began in 2014 with a trip to Disappointment Lake that we couldn’t make our BWCA fishing opener trip happen. Unfortunately, the Boundary Waters was closed to overnight travel due to Coronavirus closures and the unnecessary risk to visitors and safety personnel, and our group decided it was not a wise idea to travel, so the trip was canceled.
Fortunately, I had a Mudro Lake permit in my back pocket for Tuesday May 26th. I had booked the permit right away when permits became available back in January, knowing that it might be one of my only opportunities other than fishing opener weekend that I might be able to get away during the busy season. As manager of the retail store, I can rarely take more than a few days off at a time between Memorial and Labor Day to make trips happen.
Here’s some insider information if you’d like to visit the BWCA when the weather and water are starting to warm up, there are not yet clouds of pesky insects, the fish are incredibly active and feeding and there are very few people visiting the BWCA; go the two weeks after Memorial Day weekend. The BWCA sees a huge spike of visitors Memorial Day Weekend, then it slows down for 2-3 weeks before picking up again leading into late June and the Fourth of July.
It had been a long and demanding previous three days as I wrapped up work, prepared to leave, made the trip, and connected with my wife and kids for a 3-night adventure in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). I had left from Kansas the day before after spending the previous night packing for a new adventure, of which I had no experience with. The plan was to meet in Minneapolis, catch them on an incoming flight after a two week visit in Vermont with grandma, shovel down some dinner, dash to a hotel bed and awake early the next morning for the five or so hour drive to Moose Lake. The plan worked out great, but I underestimated the mental toll of changing all those gears along the way.
At Moose Lake we geared up, settled up on rented canoes and permits, and struck off across the water to arrive at our first camping spot of the evening. We had finally made it…Wilderness. It was about seven o’clock when we landed camp and I was spent with pain in the brain. About forty-eight hours earlier I had been at a desk doing what engineering business owners do and in a mental state far different than I expect of myself in the woods.
Jig fishing is a time-honored nearly failsafe method for fishing for Walleye in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It has many different incarnations and can lead to a variety of angler modified or inspired choices when it comes to personal preference. In short it is versatile and adaptable and requires a very limited number of parts to reach success. I like vertical jig fishing because with a little patience and of course (luck?) the right location, you can do two things well: 1) Have Fun and 2) Catch Dinner.
Traditional “ball jigs” combine a spherical weight with a hook and when the hook is tipped with bait it is a simple combination that allows an angler to take the bait down to wherever the fish are or might be. This combination allows one to fish the rocky shorelines, fallen trees, weed lines and shale piles by casting if they want to change the pace or tire of jigging.
Vertical jigging off the bottom allows your bail on your spinning reel to be open while you rest the line on your finger. Walleye often nibble or have light mouthed touches (not always — there are plenty of times they suck up your jig with force) and this approach allows you to play a little line out subtly before you set the hook. You can also close the bail and just wait for the tell-tale bobbing of the end of your rod, something that gets the blood pumping really fast. Fishing vertical drop offs, where the depth of the lake changes dramatically is a good place to start. Jigging near tips of points, and over top mounds or rises in the middle of lakes is a good option for jigs as well.
We promote non-lead alternatives in an attempt to promote Loon health. Our state bird can easily be poisoned by lead jig heads and sinkers, as they often ingest them accidentally, mistaking them for food or rocks. Tin and Bismuth make a slightly larger but no less effective jig.
Color choices can get you into many a long conversation with older more experienced anglers and those who are just superstitious, or rely on a favorite. We have a variety of water colors in the Boundary Waters lakes, from crystal clear to dark and tannin stained. It pays to have a variety of colors in your tackle box. Many people would never try darker colors, however I’ve personally proven to myself that fish must see darker colors differently than we do because black, dark blue, red have performed well for me even in darker waters. Traditional choices are yellow, chartreuse, pink, white or glow and orange.
The ideal choices to bait your jig hooks with are leeches, minnows and nightcrawlers. However, live bait is increasingly difficult to keep alive during wilderness trips that extend past a couple of days or if the weather is warm such as it is in the later weeks of July and much of August. There are a number of artificial and plastic baits that mimic the visual and swimming performance of minnows, leeches and worms. There’s even a company called of all things, Magic®, that package preserved Emerald Shiners. These shiners are traditionally a favorite bait on some Minnesota lakes where for years and years anglers have used frozen shiners that they preserved. These preserved minnows have an anise scent to them. Jigging up and down tipped with an Emerald Shiner seems to some to indeed be Magic.
It’s hard to beat a twister tail on the end of a jig. White, green or black seem to do an excellent job of exciting fish and mimicking minnows, leeches and worms.
Jigs have the downfall by nature of not being weedless and hanging up on rock piles and getting stuck. That’s why it always makes sense to take along more than you think you’ll need. It makes sense to give yourself color options and even take along some different sized jigs in case the wind comes up (the Walleye Chop isn’t famous for no reason… they like the wind, they despise direct sunlight (look at their eyes — wouldn’t you) and they also like fast moving water (fishing the tail end of rapids often produces). Tiny jigs and bits of Twisty Tails or colored fluff are excellent baits for crappie, trout and panfish.
I have to confess that I really enjoy bobber fishing and often I’ll employ a jig at the line underneath my bobber and just let my patience drift. There’s nothing quite like watching that red and white ball go under, and then go deeper. Wham!!! Dinner!
Just a side note because sometimes you want options. When I first moved to Minnesota I came across a rig called a Winkum Spin-N-Float. There’s a little float and a spinner attached to the same leader line as the perfect sized simple Walleye hook. Where this rig attached to your line you attach either a sliding weight or a few of Water Gremlin Lead Alternative Sinkers. You bait the hook with a nightcrawler or your preference and the float keeps it up off the bottom while the spinner attracts attention. Toss is out from your campsite and leave it sit while you wait for the end of your rod to bend down! When I’m not jigging or casting a countdown Rapala® or Mepps® spinner, I’m using one of these.
Once again, my fishing choices revolve around simple, classic choices that can appeal to a variety of species and produce time-honored results. Walleyes in Minnesota seem to bite on vertical ball head jigs more than just about anything else. If you don’t include Mister Twister® Tails in your pack, you should.
As one of the anglers, Mark, who replied to my last fishing blog said, “I usually paddle into the wind on a lake, and then toss one of my white twisters out and drift with the wind across the lake and usually have caught at least one northern or walleye using this method.” You see what I mean, jigs are versatile and adaptable. They allow you to develop your own style and catch fish the way you are most comfortable.
Boundary Waters Fishing: Go To Lures by Tim Stouffer
I often find Original Floating® Rapalas® in various conditions in the bottom of old tackle boxes that I buy. Since I was a little kid, one of my passions has been antiques. I gravitate towards old tackle boxes and (avoiding rusty hooks) love to dig through them looking for treasure. Aside from remnants of melted plastic worms, the single most popular discovery is some form of lightweight balsa Rapala® Floating Minnow. Sometimes this will include foil-sided early models with embossed stars from when they were still made in Finland.
This got me to thinking… why do I find so many of these? Why are they always in such a state of disrepair and not pristine? Why do their newer counterparts show up nearly as often in Perch, Silver and Blue, Firetiger and Orange? And, perhaps an even better question, what do I consider my “Go To” lure when on a Boundary Waters Canoe Trip? Not necessarily my favorite lure, because if I’m perfectly honest Mepps® Spinners are my favorite because they were my Dad’s favorite and who doesn’t enjoy a bit of flash? Usually walleye, definitely Pike and the Smallmouth love em. Let’s face it though, they aren’t minnow shaped, don’t swim or look like a minnow except in the heat of the moment.
Most predators are attracted to anything that closely mimics their natural prey. Wounded or erratically swimming minnows. Or, when wounded ones aren’t on your radar, something that looks like what you’d expect to be swimming in the water.
Live bait is difficult to keep alive during the Summer months when the temperatures rise. It’s hard to transport and care for even when it is cooler outside. Most of us use artificial baits on extended trips longer than a couple of days. Most anglers have favorite colors and like to change it up according to the season. I prefer perch colors early and late in the year and will switch them out for Firetiger and Silver and Blue and crawdad brown and orange imitators during the heat of July and August.
Whether or not I’m going up to Quetico Park in Canada where barbless hooks are a requirement, I always pinch the barbs of my hooks off. Often on a Rapala® that means crimping down 9 hooks for the three trebles, at least six, depending upon the model. Fish tend to flip and writhe at the exact moment you are reaching into the net or for their mouths. At that point you are in danger of embedding multiple hooks into your hand or arm and believe me you don’t want that to happen. You especially don’t want those hooks to have barbs on them when they are driven deep into your thumb.
From the beginning Rapala® has tank tested and tuned by hand each of the lures that they produce. This is how you know that every model you pull of a new box or old tackle box will accurately mimic the action of baitfish. There are many different models available and I plan on highlighting a few of our favorites that produce well in the Boundary Waters. You can plan your wilderness tackle box accordingly and tweak what you take along in your canoe to your taste.
Shallow Fishing for Northern Pike, Walleye, Bass and Trout is an ideal beginning to the season. For this the Original Floating® Minnow is very hard to beat. Fish where you know baitfish will be: in warmer waters, near new weed growth just underneath, casting near structure like downed trees and shallow rocks. Add weight like a pinch on sinker of some sort (we recommend non-lead alternatives because lead poisons Loons and other wildlife) perhaps a foot above your Original Floating® Minnow and you’ve just extended the season and reason for this lure. Now you can troll at mid-depth with it.
If you like to hunt for large fish, you can use Husky Magnum® or Floating Magnum® Rapalas both as floating surface models as the Lilly Pads and grasses grow out of the water or off of a “bottom bouncer” a weighted wire that bounces off the bottom and allows you to fish large lures way down deep. This is a classic up north way to troll deeper waters but requires heavier rods, reels, line and leaders. The point is, as you are starting to imagine, that Rapala® makes a lot of lures, but each one has multiple uses!
While we’re on the subject of Big, one of our Outfitting Crew’s favorite lures is the Deep Tail Dancer®. Made to head down to the thirty foot range they seem to attract a great deal of attention from Lake Trout and larger fish in particular. They come in some fantastic color options. They’re a little bit like an overgrown version of the Fat Rap®, which has also been a favorite of Walleye and Pike for many years.
The CountDown® Rapalas® are the best choice for mid-range depth and they lend themselves to great stop-and-go motion when retrieving. One of my most successful afternoons of Walleye fishing involved casting medium sized Perch colored CountDown® Raps towards an island and counting to five before I began retrieving it in a steady, fluid motion instead of stop-and-go. I couldn’t cast it too close to the island because by the time I reached five, it would have sunk to snag in the rocks, but with patience in my pocket by the time I reached another five on the retrieve I had a Walleye on. Time and time again, the perfect size for dinner, one after another. Ever since then, especially on a hot day, I’ll go back to the CountDown®.
Anytime during the season when you want to get attention quickly, it’s a good idea to move to the erratic swimming motion of a Jointed Rapala. Your retrieve and depth choices can modify the display of this magical lure even more. Wounded Baitfish, wounded baitfish, wounded baitfish. It should be your mantra, especially when nothing else is working. If you are paddling steadily towards your first (or next) campsite and you want a lazy way to have the best chance at fresh fish for dinner, the Jointed Rapala is often your best bet.
Around camp, you’ll often find panfish. Usually that also means there’s Northern Pike, the wolves of the northern waters, cruising for big punkinseed and bluegill (not to mention Black Crappie). Traditional ways to fish for panfish include slip bobbers and tiny “flu-flu” jigs. I like to put on a piece of night crawler when I’m near home. People love to fish them with a slip bobber rig and small, silvery “crappie minnows”. Those traditional methods involve live bait. There’s a relatively new version of the fantastic performing Fat Rap called simply the Mini Fat Rap. They have a compact, tight swimming action that imitates (nearly perfectly) the speed and motion of a fleeing baitfish. This causes what seem to be instinctive strikes from panfish that you’d expect from its one and a half inch size. Again, add a weight six to twelve inches up from it on your line and you can create this action at a deeper level, down by where the bigger ones are hiding in the shadows.
Well, that’s why you find so many Rapalas® in old and new tackle boxes up North. Down South too, for that matter, but for the Boundary Waters and Canoe Camping Trips, it’s hard to beat a balsa minnow that has been hand tuned to catch fish for dinner. Breakfast too.
You pick the colors, you pick the style, just get more than one, because even if you don’t lose any, your friends will want to use em. These lures and/or other Rapala® lures are in-stock at our Retail Store, Piragis Northwoods Company at 105 North Central Avenue in Ely, Minnesota on the edge of the Boundary Waters.
Thursday, April 19, 2018 Guest Blog by Cara Berzins
Ladies, no matter what hats we wear and titles we carry, I suspect that there are some core things we all want. For example, I carry the titles mom, wife, teacher, writer. I’m always looking for ways to improve how I carry those titles. I think as women we are always looking for ways to grow, and unfortunately, we tend to doubt ourselves and wonder whether we are doing any of those things right. I know I do.
I believe I know a secret and unexpected way to build confidence and reduce doubt and guilt. This is my story of how wilderness camping shaped my identity and set me up for a happier life.
CAMPING IN THE BWCAW AS A GIRL
I was 1 year old when I visited the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for the first time. It’s a wilderness camping area of supreme quiet, endless forests, and interconnected lakes stretching across the northern border of Minnesota. Every summer, as a family of 5 and sometimes with friends, we meandered the over 1500 miles of canoe routes traversing more than 1000 lakes.
Not only did my parents get double takes because they brought young children with them into this utterly remote wilderness camping area, people noticed when two of the three little ones were girls.
As my sister and I grew, we became increasingly aware that we were a rare breed in the BWCAW. We couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment when we were able to load ourselves up for portages with ease while guys with other traveling groups looked on openmouthed. One of us would help the other slip her shoulders into a large bulky looking canvas canoe pack. Sometimes, to avoid coming back for another trip over the portage we would carry two packs. The other would be strapped on backwards so the backpack part hung in front. (Believe it or not, this method was actually easier because the weight was distributed more evenly!) Then the one carrying the packs would prop up the canoe as the other centered her shoulders under the yoke. Away we went after taking all of 3 minutes to load up. Seeing a teenage girl carry a canoe on her head all by herself was a shock to some of our fellow campers. Seeing how impressed they were was a huge self-esteem boost to me in the years when girls usually feel especially awkward.
The wilderness does not discriminate. When the wind howls and the waves rise into frothy whitecaps, you still need to paddle back to your campsite whether you are male or female, 8 or 80. You need the same bare minimum of gear to survive and enjoy your time in the wilderness. As yet, there is no portage concierge available to shunt these belongings from one waterway to the next. This fact makes it seem like a man’s world. Instead, this very fact makes wilderness camping the great equalizer.
WHY EVERY WOMAN SHOULD TRY WILDERNESS CAMPING
I believe these experiences have shaped my self-image in fundamental ways.
I feel strong and sure of myself. Traveling for miles powered only by my own muscles taught me to be confident in myself and my ability to handle physically demanding situations.
I feel a connection with nature that is strongest in this true wilderness, but helps me seek out and find that same feeling even in places where nature is scarce.
This connection with nature is like a deep seated well of tranquility. It helps me combat anxiety and stress, which gives confidence in my emotional ability to handle demanding situations.
Being at the mercy of the elements taught me that I can’t expect things to always be easy. It also taught me not to give up when the going is hard.
I learned to think outside the box. Sometimes you need to be innovative and learn to make do with what you have when you are traveling with the bare minimum. (Once we traded minnows for toilet paper from a group of fishermen. Priorities😉)
I learned to distinguish between need and wants. You quickly realize what is needed and what’s not when you have to carry it all for a couple of miles.
The value of cooperation and teamwork is obvious in the wilderness. If you aren’t paddling in unison, you get nowhere fast. If you don’t work together to set up camp, it takes twice as long.
HOW CAMPING FEELS
Some of my happiest memories are times we spent as a family camping. The sound of a paddle swishing through the water, the call of a loon, the lapping of waves, rain on the tent flaps, beavers slapping the water with their tail, various bird calls, the rustle of our feet on the portage, waterfalls thundering, wind rushing through the treetops. How often do we experience these sounds anymore? The effect they have on the mind and body is . . . I struggle to come up with the right word. Invaluable, healing, soothing, life altering.
Nancy Piragis summed it up well on the welcome video for Piragis Northwoods Company. She said, “I never forget a canoe trip. I never forget a day in the woods. But I forget days at home, I forget days in the office. . . Every single time you go out there’s always memories to be had.” You find that life has been reduced to what is right in front of you. No distractions, no rushing, no multitasking. It’s so good for your psyche and your brain.
Humans seem to be built to perform their best when at one with nature. It makes us happier, healthier, calmer. This effect has even been hitting the headlines recently. I especially enjoyed this recent episode of Innovation Hub on my local NPR station. It’s about the scientific evidence that nature is good for us.
One of the saddest side effects of modern living is that people have started to fear nature. And yet nature has so much to give us. They flood their yards with spot lights at night, they avoid uninhabited areas because they are afraid of the animals. For me, the sounds of nature are so soothing, it seems absurd to be afraid of them. I remember when I realized how much people fear nature. I was camping with friends, a single mother and her daughter. She mentioned they might not sleep well because of the noises. That night in my tent I listened with extra attention to the forest noises. Because I was listening so intently and imagining how it would sound to someone unfamiliar with the forest, my senses were all on high alert. Suddenly, I heard a terrifying, unidentifiable rumble. For a few scary moments my mind rushed through a whole series of animals until it finally dawned on me. A jet was flying high overhead! I felt relieved to finally identify the noise. But this confirmed my previous opinion; the creature most to be feared is our own species, humans. No animal noise could sound that terrifying. In the end my friends slept well, and decided they loved camping.
CONTINUING THE LEGACY
My parents gave me a priceless legacy by taking me wilderness camping as a girl. Since then we have camped with my nieces and my daughter. At first the noises and the wildness made them nervous too. But soon enough they feel just as comfortable and at home as they would in their own house. The difference is, instead of being enclosed in walls and under a roof, the lake cradles them under the vast blue sky while the forest sings its lullaby.
Experience wilderness camping for yourself. If you want to learn to believe in yourself, if you want to connect with nature more deeply than you thought possible, if you want to shake off the built-up stress and pressure of every-day life, then wilderness camping might be just the right thing for your next vacation!
Friday, May 11, 2018 “Portage to my first paddle of 2018”
On May 6th I woke up early before work and knew it was going to be a good day on the water. I went to work knowing that I would have to leave early so I could take advantage of the weather. With zero resistance my manager told my co-worker Joe and myself to have fun and be safe.
We left town at around 3:30 PM and had a nice drive up the Echo Trail to entry point 23 Moose River North. Its about a 45 minute drive from town. It was my first time portaging or paddling of the season. The first portage into Moose River North is about a half mile long, it is a beautiful portage that is relatively flat. It is always interesting how your body will react to the first portage of the season. Carrying a boat isn’t always the most pleasant feeling but it is something over the years that I have grown to be very comfortable with.
When we got to the water I was a little relived to get the canoe off of my shoulders. As we began to paddle I started to regain skills that come with every summer I spend here in Ely. There are three portages until you get to Nina Moose. Joe and I finished our second portage and we paddled for just a few minutes until we spotted something unusual in the water ahead. It looked like small rapids, or like water was running over a stick in the water. As we got closer the movement in the water got further away and we realized that it was three small otters. We followed them up the river for about half a mile before they realized we were behind them. They swam to the shore and scurried away to the woods.
The reason I chose to go to Moose River North is because there is a high peak that you can easily climb to the top of and see all the rest of the river and Nina Moose Lake. I had been there a few times before in previous years and I wanted to see it in the spring time. Its not marked on a map anywhere but when you arrive you can see where people in the past have gotten off of the river. We climbed to the top of the hill and the wind picked up as we got out in the open. The sun came out from behind the clouds and we sat up there for a while and talked about our grand paddling plans for the season. After a while we climbed back down to our boat and paddled to Nina Moose.
Paddling rivers is very different than paddling lakes, although the rivers in the Boundary Waters don’t flow very strong it is still important to read the water as it flows over rocks and other things in the water. Its a good idea to have good communication between yourself and your paddling partner to avoid the things that can damage your canoe. I would draw from the right or left from the bow seat to quickly change the direction of the boat. The person in the stern cant always see the incoming rocks so its important for the person in the bow to always be watching to protect the canoe.
We paddled to Nina Moose and the wind completely died. We spent some time there to write down our thoughts and to capture some of the science. Two swans landed in the lake and we also shared the lake with a loon. It was the first time since getting back to Ely that I had heard the call of a loon. The sun was hinting to us that it was time to start heading back. The sun was behind the trees on our way back so the temperature lowered considerably. The water was clear as glass and in the reflection you could see the shore line. We ran into a beaver that swam about 15 feet away from us before diving under us and popping back up 15 feet behind us. We also saw our otter friends again and it seemed as if two of them were fighting but they disappeared to the woods again.
Spring time is such a wonderful time to go into the Boundary Waters, even if it is just for a day trip. It’s as if you get to watch the world wake up right in front of you. I’m excited for another season of padding in the most beautiful country!
Wednesday, May 16, 2018 “Solo Canoeing — at peace with yourself”
I cannot decide if I prefer to paddle in a group or if Id rather just go alone. The thing that I love most about solo paddling is that whether it’s just a day trip or a multi-day trip there is no outside pressure to do anything. No schedule in a sense, unless YOU make one. You have to be disciplined enough to accomplish your goals and you are the only one responsible to push yourself. When you are alone it’s all up to you.
For my first solo paddle I took it easy and went to entry point #14 Little Indian Sioux North. I have been there once before during last season, but it was at the end of a very long day so I didn’t have the energy to explore. It made for an easy decision to go back. Unfortunately, due to a small wrist injury, I was not able to make it to my planned destination which was Devils Cascade. I will leave that for another day, I suppose.
I took a Northstar Magic on my trip. The Magic is my favorite solo boat to paddle. It handles better and portages better than any boat that I have tried yet. I also prefer to use a kayak paddle, that way, I feel like I am able to cover more ground.
The weather on the river was absolutely gorgeous and the wind was very mild, not a cloud in the sky. I paddled slowly down the river, stopping often to listen to the earth singing. I didn’t see a single person out there even though the parking lot was packed for fishing opener.
When I first arrived at the portage I jumped out of the boat into the chilled water, I could hear water rushing. I walked back and forth along the portage until I found a good spot to sit down and read for a while. The portage is 60 rods and it leads to another segment of the river. I sat there for a good while to gather my thoughts and enjoy the sound of runningwater .
When I got back on the river I searched for a nice sunny spot on the shore where I could have some lunch. As I ate, a small family of turtles joined me on a log. They stayed there until I got up to leave.
My first solo paddle of the year wasn’t very eventful but not every paddle into the Boundary Waters has to be about what you saw, how far you went or what you did. A vital part of every experience should be about how your body is feeling and most importantly how your mind is feeling when you’re finished.
Luckily with the Boundary Waters so close, I never really feel like we are finished — there’s always another day and another lake to explore. Maybe I’ll see you out there.
For a couple of weekends in a row we’ve gone out fishing for walleye close to Ely in the late afternoon leading into evening. Usually this time of year, jigging with minnows or leeches is a go-to formula. The trick is finding them during constant air and water temperature fluctuations and sunlight and barometer changes. They always seem to be most mobile in the Spring and less likely to stack up anywhere and stay very long. I chalk it up to both their predatory nature and their particular avoidance of light in favor of shadow.
Generally I prefer the versatility of nightcrawlers and so I got some along with rainbow minnows.
Last weekend we set our anchor off an island where we could see the rocks dropping off sharply and found the bottom around 17 to 20 feet. We got hits off the minnows nearly immediately two different ways, neither of which was really a traditional jigging method. Usually you lift the jig and let it drop, leave it for a bit and repeat, picking up bites during or after the drop. In this case, we picked up most our bites either during the retrieve or when returning back to our rod after leaving it to sink to bottom while netting a fish for someone else. These “dead pickups” as I call them are particularly fun. We chased them in this style for a while that day and got enough to have a fantastic dinner. We even picked up a Northern that I made Pike Dip out of.
Northern Pike Dip upper left, homemade Tarter sauce middle, Walleye fried in panko and flour and yellow mustard egg coating upper right, homestyle potatoes bottom. Ritz crackers too. YUM.
Pike Dip Recipe: Sauté the pike in butter salt pepper and garlic powder. Afterwards let it chill. When cold pick out any “Y” bones left and break up by hand. Chop up celery and yellow onion. I did five stalks and one small onion and four tablespoons of pickle relish for a small/medium fish. Mix all together with a couple of big spoons of mayo. Add black pepper salt garlic powder and a little crushed red pepper if you like and chill. Goes great on a hearty cracker or if you like a rich sandwich like tuna salad on toasted bread. NOTE: Curry powder or Cumin adds another layer of flavor if you back off the garlic.
A week later we returned to the same spot after a couple of nights where we experienced frost advisories overnight and a day where we rose above eighty degrees. That’s northern Minnesota for you, weather in constant flux. We tried near the island from before. On the rocky shoreline a young muskrat was scurrying back and forth in the sun. He was too quick to get a picture of and I simultaneously had a bite. It lead to nothing as did the next hour and so we moved to the nearby shoreline away from the island and began to fish much shallower, casting into the shoreline and retrieving the jigs with rainbow minnows again and nightcrawlers. We got equal hits on both, nearly always on the retrieve from 4 feet to 9 or 10 feet deep. Besides the walleye I picked up a nice sized perch and we released two feisty Northern Pike. We were joined quickly by a Bald Eagle and some noisy gulls. A pair of loons evidently had this spot on their mental maps as well, because as dinner time for us came and went, they outpaced us in their catch and enjoyed their regular meal time.
The slow and steady breeze seems to wear you out on the water in a calm and somehow refreshing way. Have you noticed that. A good kind of tired after a few hours on the water? The vocalizations of the Eagle, the gulls and the Loons surrounded us. I wished that I’d been able to hear the muskrat or to have been able to watch him for more than a few seconds. His oiled coat had glistened a dark reddish brown in the sunlight as he flitted between blueberry shrubs and undergrowth. I wondered if he frequented the island or if he was just exploring.
Everything slows down out on a lake. The concentration on what you can and cannot feel at the end of your line, what it might be and how long to wait before setting the hook is a new constant after a long winter of walking on water. The sense of touch associated with the rise and fall of slow waves, of current pushing you, takes time to rediscover. The warmth of the sun and the comfort of the sound of the wind blowing through the pines doesn’t require any such adjustment. When you feel those, you are caressed by peace. You embrace them like silence, so different from our everyday noise, so full of comfort is the soundtrack of the woods around.
Gull blends into the trees and looks like a gap in them at first. Eagle keeps watch.
I didn’t take a temperature of the water. It seems cold but warming daily as is normal for late May. I’d jump in and go swimming. Most people not from here would prefer to wait a couple of weeks. The blackflies are still doing their thing to benefit the blueberries and the mosquitoes weren’t bad until it was time to go home. Normal. As I sat in my backyard an hour or so later cleaning fish, their were scores of huge honey bees droning away as they fed on the newly blossomed crab apple and cherry trees in my yard. I’ve never seen so many before. They also buzzed about the dandelions and found our tiny Lilly of the Valley buds.
Jen holding two of her favorite catches. Look at that smile!
It sounded like the promise of Summer to come, outside in the yard in Ely. It was Spring in all of its glorious rebirth. Rising.
Paddling from a solo canoe is something that I have become very comfortable with. I’ve spent the last five summers paddling them when I can’t find anyone to go with. My favorite solo canoe to paddle is the NorthStar Magic. They are very lightweight, easy to portage and for someone with good balance, stable enough. After a very dreadful morning of listening to current events going on in the twin cities my heart ached and I needed to go somewhere to be alone.
I portaged to South Kawishiwi in hopes to catch some small mouth bass. I have caught some pretty decent ones there before, so I thought I’d try again. The spot I was thinking of was very easy to reach and wouldn’t take too much time at all. I saw the perfect rocky shoreline with a few downed trees and I casted in. First cast and I had a fish on! How exciting to find a fish just like that! I fished that shoreline and caught two more bass and two small pike. I decided to keep moving to the original spot I had planned to go to. I found a nice rocky bay and I casted in, the lure barely hit the water before I had a 15in bass on.
It’s a new skill I’m learning, managing a canoe specifically a solo with a fish on. If you aren’t anchored in it can be seconds before you’re blown somewhere dangerous. This small mouth had put up a good fight and was flying out of the water before I got it in the boat. I stayed in this spot and only caught a small pike and decided to move on. It was getting late and I needed to get back to town for work, so I started to paddle back.
I saw a bay that I couldn’t pass up, so I dropped anchor and my lure was sitting in the water right next to the boat and a fish came up and gobbled it right up. Another decent size! I was running out of time but was so excited, so I stayed for another thirty minutes and caught two more nice fish. Too much fun when you find the fish and have a productive day on the water. I would always prefer to share my excitement of fishing with someone else. A tandem canoe makes it easier to control but fishing from a solo canoe adds a new level of patience and skill especially on a windy frustrating day. More days like this to come!
After spending my last winter in the cities I’ve realized there is no other place for me than a small town like Ely, MN. I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to call it my home. Something that has been brought to my attention is the accessibility to wilderness I have that many people don’t. Working at an outfitter gives me the ability to rent gear and take it places that for some people only comes once a year or even a lifetime. For me it comes every day if I choose. It takes just a little discipline and the desire to get out on the water. This past winter while focused on my health and healing I spent a lot of time thinking about the spring days I would be fishing in the BWCAW.
I don’t know much about fishing and I had made It my goal for the summer to fish as often as I can as well as listen and retain as much information as I can about it. What I have found is that fishing is an expensive hobby, but it has been well worth it. It has been occupying my mind most of the time. Catching fish is one of the most exciting things that I have ever experienced.
When you work a full-time job it’s not hard to make time, you just have to prioritize what you want. If you’re tired you just have to push through, especially when you’re learning something new. The odds increase drastically the more I have my line in the water. For me it is not enough to spend just my days off in a boat. Finding time in between shifts at work to be on the water is key to every summer I’ve spent in Ely.
Before my shift a friend and household member Nick and I wanted to fish on Little Gabbro. We got up at around 5:30 AM, got organized to be on the water by 7:00. Wasn’t quite early enough to get the morning bite but it was a beautiful morning regardless. Caught a few small fish and sometimes that’s enough. After drifting around for a bit, I noticed something on a distant shoreline moving around. It was a moose and her two babies! The most incredible wildlife I had seen in the Boundary waters to date. It made the whole trip worthwhile.
Look close near the fallen tree 🙂
The reason I live where I do is for mornings like that. The accessibility I have to wild places surprises me every day.
A day later I made plans with my partner Madeline to go fishing on South Kawishiwi in the evening after work. We didn’t catch much but again it was a beautiful time on the water. I will never complain about that. It’s a good way to spend time with the people you love. After not having much action with a jig and minnow we decided it was a good time to head back. I threw on a small Rapala and we started our lazy paddle back. After about one minute of trolling I had a good fight with a small mouth bass. It’s so exciting to reel in something big and guess what might be on the other end of the line. I will be chasing that feeling for the rest of my life I’m sure.
As I’m learning as much as I can about fishing, I stop often and think it’s all a process. I don’t know a lot and that’s okay. But the best thing you can do is talk with people, take their advice and most importantly keep the line in the water. Cheers and happy spring!
