A boundary waters trip report

So it has been a while since a have made a post.  Work has been kicking my ass, so I haven't really had the time to post.  The following is a trip report from my May 19th-25th trip to the Boundary waters canoe area in northern Minnesota.  The forecast was for a single day of rain with light winds, I should have know to
 never trust the weatherman. It was a great trip as usual. The rain didn't really hurt anything about the trip in my opinion, and it will make me much more prepared for next year.  Fishing as usual was superb, but numbers were down from years prior.  They were located in areas with current, especially on the larger lakes.  I would love to make a trip at this time of year again in the future.


Day 1

I made the 300 mile drive from southern Illinois to meet my friends in West central IL.  We then packed up our gear and started the 600 mile drive to Ely MN.  We traveled overnight and arrived just before our outfitter opened at 5:00 am. We loaded up our rental canoes and headed for our entry point an hour down the echo trail.    Our first day was to be a travel day, we would cover about 13 miles of lake and small creek paddling with several portages along the way.  The weather started out beautiful with light winds and bluebird skies.  By the time we reached our destination lake, the wind was ripping at least 20 MPH from the south.  We finally found an open campsite, which was a great site in tiger bay of Lac la Croix.  After traveling all night with no seep and 13 miles of paddling we were all beat.  That night we enjoyed steaks and many hard drinks. The rain started shortly after midnight.








 



 






 






Day 2

We wake up to heavy rain.

It was kind of nice to see, given that the water levels on the way in were as low as I have seen them.  It rained until noon or so, and we then paddled off to fish a nearby river.  Smallmouth bass were stacked at the base of a waterfall, but they were picky and the majority were small.  We did pick up several walleye to have for dinner, and the biggest was a respectable 25 incher.  Spirits were much higher this day.  We knew that there was going to be a solar eclipse this day, but we didn't think that we would be able to see it.  We were wrong, about 5:30 the eclipse started, and for a while the sun looked like a giant purple ball in the sky.  It was beautiful.  This was one of the very few times that fishing took a back seat to scenery.  It rained all night and stopped shortly before daylight.

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Day 3
This would be the only morning without rain.  The rest of the group slept in, and I took the oppurtunity to do a little solo paddling.


We paddled a nearby river system located between two lakes, and the fishing was fantastic.  I caught 6 smallies that were 18 inches or bigger, along with a bunch of 18-22 inch walleye.  In one area I could have sat in one spot and caught fish on nearly every cast for hours, but with so many good fishing spots I had to move along.  Fried fish and walleye for dinner that evening.























Day 4

Rain and wind in the morning, the rain stopped but the wind didn't.  We paddled to a nearby lake noted for it's fantastic fishing.  I have looked forward to fishing this lake for years, but the wind was so strong we were forced to turn back within 2 miles of the spot I was looking forward to fishing.  Oh well, next year.  We stopped by a good spot on our way back to camp and the fishing was on fire.  I will let the pictures and video do the talking.  LOTS of big smallies.  Biggest was over 20 inches, and they were hitting on every cast.




















Lots of drinks around the campfire that night.






Day 5

This would be a travel day, and we planned to move closer to our vehicles to make the last day easier.  The wind was absolutely brutal and would be into our face the whole trip.  We got an early start and made our way to agnes lake.  Most campsites were taken as most weren't traveling this day, but we found a great site.  It was exposed to the wind, so we had to devise a wind break and rain fly but it worked out wonderfully.  Fishing was impossible with the 30 MPH sustained winds, so we ate the rest of our food and drank the rest of the booze.  We saw the northern lights that evening shortly before it began to rain buckets.  At least 2.5 inches of rain that night.











Day 6

We paddled and portaged our way out up a raging creek.  We paddled over beaver dams that we had to pull over on our way in.  Some of the portages had running water over them.  It rained most of the day.  Beer tastes so good after 6 days in the wilderness.  A shower after 6 days in the wilderness is an amazing feeling.

A great weekend

I am a lucky man. I had a three day weekend, so I spent Saturday floating one of my absolute favorites. On Sunday I spent the day with friends from the SEMO smallmouth alliance for the Castor river stream team cleanup. Monday was a 10 mile float on a great little river.

I needed a big boat for trash hauling for the stream team cleanup so I strapped a solo seat into my 17 foot tandem. It's old, being made in 1983 but I don't think it has been paddled more than 5 times in it's life. It paddled great, although it was a little tricky to paddle the first shut-ins with such a long boat.


One of my absolute favorite floats.








































The stream team cleanup is something that I get a lot of enjoyment out of. The first year that we did the event, we picked up 1700 lbs of trash. The access points were dumping grounds and there was so much trash in the rivers that we completely filled our boats in the first couple of miles. It has gotten progressively better every year. This year we only picked up about 500 lbs of trash. At times, I would walk around a gravel bar and have trouble even finding trash. It is a good feeling to see change happening.

My boat filled with trash.

I think this boat might be a little to big for the creek






The next day I floated with a good friend. The fish were slamming my homemade lures, so I was a very happy man. No monsters, but plenty of 16 inch fish to keep me happy.










I will never get tired of floating these amazing places.

In like a lamb

I haven't gotten to fish much this past month or so. Water temps are nearly 60 degrees and the fish are moving. I have had good days and bad days, and it is surprising that I had much more success in water colder than 45 degrees than I have had at 52-58. I missed about a 10 day window due to work obligations; and average water temperatures increased from 43 to 55 on my favorite lake. Fish have actually started to move to spawning locations and the adjacent deep water after heavy fishing pressure or fronts.

I caught this largemouth shortly before a two and half hour drive to the airport. I then had to endure 6 days in vegas for a conference. That is a LONG time to be in Las Vegas.




I did my first smallmouth fishing trip of the year, which typically have been very productive for me. I try to time my trip to collide with water temperatures rising from the upper 40's into the low to mid 50's. Fishing was slow this trip. Water temps were higher than normal for this time of year and the fish weren't in places where I would have typically had success. Oh well, you win some-you lose some. I did get to fish and hike one of my favorite places on earth.


















I hadn't caught a smallmouth since December 22nd until I lipped this fatty. This spot is normally loaded with them, but it only produced one fish this trip.

Toothy fish

Winter has been mild in southern Illinois, and the fish are biting. I have spent the past two months targeting walleye, rainbow trout and muskies. Water temperatures from 38 to 45 degrees keep the feeding windows short, but they typically set up a predictable pattern for days at a time, and they often stay in predictable locations.


In 10 trips to one particular spot over the last two months, I have caught 3 muskies and 13 walleye. I have caught a walleye per trip from that spot since Jan 1st except for a beautiful Saturday morning when I went fishless, unless you count the foul hooked asian carp. I don't catch many per trip, and often times I will only have one to two bites per trip when fishing for walleye. They have ranged in size from 15-23 inches. Muskies can be incredibly aggressive some days, then disappear for days, but that is nothing new. Rainbow trout are predictable and sometimes easy to catch. Several other species have showed up while fishing for the aforementioned target fish. I hope you are enjoying the outdoors as much as I am this winter.