When I was 12, my father and I went to Ontario Canada to fish for a week at a do it yourself fishing camp. We caught Pike, Walleye, Smallmouths and Lake Trout. It was a blast! Ever since I've dreamt of returning to "The Great North Woods" to fish the land of many lakes.
Determined to make it happen, and at a budget, I found the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The BWCA is a large wilderness area in the Superior National Forest on the Minnesota Canada border. The area is peppered with thousands of lakes full of pike, bass, walleye and trout. Portage trails connect nearly every lake to another. With a canoe and some grit, paddlers can access all the lakes they desire with simply time and energy being the limiting factor.
Research revealed many outfitters in the area were willing to provide paddlers with equipment. Cliff Wold's Outfitters came highly recommended so I chose them. Not owning a canoe and living in Idaho, I decided to go the complete outfitting route: canoes, packs, camping gear, food, the works. Ryan Olsen from the outfitter helped me chose a route based on my main objective; great fishing! At under $500 a person, I couldn't wait to form a crew of buddies and head to the Boundary Waters.
Long-time fishing buddies Kevin Higgs and Camron Despain were on-board and fellow fire fighter friends Jordan Lowe, Ryan Wallace and Chase Christopher were also game. Unfortunately Kevin had something come up last minute so it would be the 5 of us.
Early June was here before we knew it and by 5 pm on Sunday we were arriving in Ely, Minnesota.
After meeting with Ryan the outfitter, we checked into the bunk-house, prepped our portage packs and by 6:30 the next morning we were waiting for our shuttle to take us to the launch spot; Mudro Lake. We planned to paddle North the first day: Mudro to Sandpit, Tin Can Mike, Horse Lake, down the Horse River to Basswood Falls to Crooked Lake, and if time permitted, we would continue on towards Wednesday Bay. We honestly had no idea how much time the portages would take, how fast we would be paddling or how much fishing we would be doing. Zach the shuttle driver gave us a few tips on carrying the canoes and sent us on our way.
Camron and I started in the 2 man while Jordan, Wallace and Chase filed into the 3 man. The journey started with a short portage to a creek that led into Mudro Lake. It was quite comical at first watching 5 canoe novice Idahoans paddle down a winding creek dodging rocks in foreign water craft. Laughs were had by all but before we knew it we were in Mudro Lake. Not wanting to be distracted too heavily, we only rigged 1 spinning rod in each canoe for the first day. I know myself, Camron and Jordan could easily spend an entire day stuck in one lake fishing. The sickness is real, but we needed to cover some ground so we vowed to keep the casts to a minimum until we at least reached Basswood Falls.
A short paddle across Mudro and we were onto the first decent portage. Portages are measured in rods (canoe lengths, or 16 foot). This one was only 90 rods. Luckily with 5 young men, the portage proved to be easy enough with one trip, and away we paddled through Sandpit. Towards the end of Sandpit, both Camron and Jordan were practically drooling looking at the pristine, calm, early morning waters. The spinning rods had to come out. Camron and Jordan began to cast.
A couple casts in, I heard Jordan cursing. "Well, there goes my chatter bait. Line just broke in the cast. Someone told me not to bring my spinning gear. Said they had it covered. This thing is a piece of junk!"
We all laughed, but it was true. I had told the guys that Camron and I would supply 2 spinning rods; Only to find out both Camron and I's equipment was old and less than ready for a week of serious fishing due to all the fly fishing we had been doing in the last 15 years.
"Bet that chatter bait would have been the ticket." Our local comedian Jordan said.
We set the rods down and made the next portage. We took turns carrying the boats and packs on the portages. Before we knew it, we had made it to Horse Lake and it was only 9:30 in the morning.
"Ryan, this is amazing." Chase said as we pushed off the shore onto the glassy waters of Horse Lake.
"I know, I've wanted to do this for a while." I commented back taking in the beautiful scenery of rocks, pines and endless glassy water.
"It's like a backpack trip with canoes and fishing! You know I hadn't done a lot of research on this trip. This is way better than I imagined." Chase said as he paddled.
Every one had big smiles on their faces as we paddled along.
We reached a rocky pinch point on the lake and we couldn't take it any longer; we had to make some casts. The rod was rigged with a rapala X-rap, a favorite of mine for early season bass. Camron casted first and a couple casts later he set the hook on the first fish of the trip; a small bass. Of course we hooted and hollered to let the other canoe know we were on the board.
I then took the rod and threw towards some chunky rocks. The lure stopped dead in its tracks on one of my pops. I set the hook hard and felt the weight of a substantial fish. A giant smallmouth came rocketing out of the air! Camron and my jaws dropped at the size of the bronze back. After some playing we netted the 20 inch smallie.
We fished a little while longer with Jordan landing a small Pike before we put the rods away again. We took a right turn on the lake towards the start of the Horse River. As we paddled towards the mouth, large boulders could be seen scattered about through the depths surrounded by marshy edges. This place screamed of pike. Just before we entered the Horse River, Camron threw a cast. Immediately he connected with a fish, and it was huge! Line screamed off the old spinning reel. I quickly turned the canoe before getting sucked down the river. A huge pike came thrashing to the surface. Our net was seriously inadequate for a fish of this caliber. At times the fish fought under the other canoe and they were almost able to net it from their boat, but every time someone tried, the fish shot back down to the bottom. Finally after an epic battle, I was able to get the head of the pike into our net. I had to hold the fishes tail to control the other half of it. This thing was a beast!
We released the 36 inch pike and began down the river. The river meandered along, with some areas rocky and fast while others were like a slow marsh. Several short portages avoided tight rocky rapids. We fished a little here and there with some success, including another 20 inch smallie taken on a popper by Chase.
Soon we could hear the distant roar of Basswood falls. So far we'd only seen one other paddler on the trip. It was as if we had the entire Boundary Waters to ourselves. But as we neared the falls, we began to see a few people on the water and in camps that marked the beginning of Crooked lake. We had still made good time because it was only 2 O'clock.
We checked the map and located a pinch point on Crooked Lake that Ryan, the outfitter had circled as a great campsite, and a good spot to try for walleye. The falls were gorgeous but if we could make it a few more miles down the lake, we'd be better set up to basecamp it there and make day trips the next few days. Camron and I quickly set up a couple fly rods in anticipation of the walleye-waters ahead, while the other guys made a couple casts with the spinning rods. Wallace caught a bass and Jordan a pike.
The guys loaded back into the canoes.
"Gosh, just think of all the fish I would be catching if I had that chatter bait..." Jordan said shaking his head.
We all laughed. But another canoe completed the portage around the falls and appeared to be headed in the same direction as us. Not wanting to get beat to our chosen campsite, we paddled hard to put some water between us and the other boat. I kept looking back to see if they were gaining on us; a silly thing to concern ourselves with in such a beautiful place on a vacation. But campsites are limited in the boundary waters and if you wait too long in the day to find one you may be paddling in the dark to find another.
We passed a rock cliff with some Indian pictographs.
The other canoe stopped here and appeared to turn around. We were once again on our own. Crooked lake is actually a large river system that marks the border between Minnesota and Ontario Canada. Current flowed through the pinch points and around islands. By 5 pm we made it to our campsite. We lucked out on it not being occupied because it really was a nice one. Chase quickly hung an American flag he brought; a nice touch with Canada being 80 yards across the river.
We set camp, and made dinner; New York steaks! Cliff Wolds had packed a delicious dinner of steaks, hash browns and green beans. After a long day of paddling, we felt like kings with this meal. As tired as our legs and arms were, we still had energy to do one more thing; fish!
We rigged up the remaining fly rods with streamers, poppers and balanced leeches and hit the water. There was a large cove next to camp with both rocky and grassy edges. Camron and I started on one side and the 3 man boat on the other. We would meet in the middle. We took turns casting, Camron and I each landing a few northerns and bass, mostly on poppers. We met up with the other boat just before dark; they had found similar results.
"Yeah we caught a few. Would have caught more if I had a chatterbait..." Jordan said with a wry smile.
"You're the one who casted it off the line!" I retorted back, knowing I had nothing solid as a response.
"Should have let me bring my rod..." Jordan mumbled.
By 9:30 pm we had crawled into the sleeping bags. I fell asleep to the thoughts of vicious northerns, elusive walleyes and monster smallies that lay ahead in the next day of fishing.
*Photo's Credit - Chase Christopher
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