Click on pictures to enlarge
After a month in the bush of Canada we ventured back to
Minnesota to attend our nieces wedding on the 14th. Although it was
a quick trip, it was great time and it was good to see friends and family. Kris
and Dave had a quiet wedding at my brother Bob’s house, the weather was sketchy
but they were able to get an outdoor ceremony in before the rain it.
When we returned we were greeted by hundreds thousands
millions of mosquitoes! If you are out in the open during the day it was
bearable but if you were anywhere in the shade or ventured out in the early
morning or at dusk you are eaten alive. One thing we learned quickly is that
our rig is not mosquito–proof. They somehow make their way in, I am guessing
it is through the area around the slide outs as it is nearly impossible to make
those air tight. Each night we kill at least a hundred before we go to bed. We
also run a box fan on high in the bedroom to keep them from landing on us in
our sleep. Today I ran some blue painters tape along some of the seams that
looked like entry points so we will have to wait and see how it goes. So far
tonight I think I only killed about 20 which is a vast improvement. We also got
a chance to set up and test out the screen room we bought last year just for
this reason. Overall I am impressed with how it keeps the bugs out and handles
itself in the wind.
We have also been going with Chad while he traps minnows
this week. The resort goes through about 40-60 dozen minnows each day for the guests
so minnow trapping is a daily occurrence. He traps both using nets and wire
traps. The nets are about 50 feet long, cylindrical and funnel shaped. He
places them in areas with high minnow concentrations and the minnows swim down
the net (funnel) to an area that they cannot get out. The traps are about 3
feet long, made of wire and have an inverted cone on one or both ends. These
are baited with bread and the minnows swim inside the trap through the inverted
cone and cannot get out. A good netting will result in more than 100 dozen
while a good trap could produce about 10 dozen.
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Minnow Lake |
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Trap in water |
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Only a few in this trap! |
One of the things we like to do is find remote lakes that no
one has fished for a while. We will look at a map and Google Earth of the area
and find a lake that has limited or no access. Many of these maps will show old
logging roads. Once we find a likely lake we will use Google Earth to find the
most likely route into the lake, create latitude and longitude GPS waypoints,
gas up the 4 wheeler and chainsaw and see if we can get to the lake. Barb and I
went on one such adventure ride the other day in search of a brook trout lake
Chad he has heard of but has never heard of anyone getting to in recent years.
The lake itself was about 40kms from camp with the last 6-10 kms being brush
busting. We were able to find the old logging road that went near the lake, it
was overgrown but passable with the 4 wheeler. As we were driving down the
logging road, there on the side of the logging road was a huge moose antler!
Bull moose will typically drop their antlers in January or February and this
particular moose happened to be on this logging road when it dropped! We loaded
it up and it now resides outside our trailer next to Barb’s chainsaw carving
bear. We made it within 100 yards of the lake but that was as close as we could
get with the 4 wheeler. With this information stored away, we will be back with
our canoe and cut our way in the last 100 yards to see what we can do on that
lake!
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Moose shed where we found it |
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Cutting our way into a lake |
Barb and I did get out fishing this week. We went to a lake
that we had discovered last year. It again was a lake that Chad said the
previous owner had fished but he has not heard of anyone fishing it in the 8
years he has owned the resort. We had cleared a logging road and just killed
the walleyes, this is now a lake that Chad sends his customers to as well. This
was also Daisy’s first fishing adventure for the year. She usually stays home
but we were only going out for a few hours so we thought, what the heck, bring
her along. She had quite the experience on the way there, she loves sitting on
Barb’s lap with her head out the window and as we were driving down the gravel
road we hit a pothole and boom, Daisy flies out the window! One second, she was
on Barb’s lap, the next she is gone! Luckily Barb had her leash and harness on
so she did not hit the ground, she just bounced off the side of the jeep a few
times before Barb pulled her back in. it was a little nerve-racking for us and
for the next few minutes Daisy gave me the stink eye like I did it on purpose! When we got to the lake, in 2 hours of
fishing, we had our limit of 8 eater size walleyes and had released about 8
more. We also ventured to another lake that no one has been on since Chad has
owned the resort. I had been by this lake several times while bear baiting in
the past few years but this time I brought the canoe and Barb so we were going
to see if there were any fish in it. Barb had the first fish within 15 minutes,
a small pike. A little while later, she had another and another. I think she
had 6 pike before I had my first fish. All in all it was a good day. We caught
between 15-20 pike, nothing huge but a fun lake to send someone to if they want
a lot of action.
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Daisy in full launch position |
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I think she is still giving me the stink eye! |
Our third outing was another exploration adventure with our
four wheeler and canoe. There is a small lake on the map that is adjacent to a
really good pike lake so I thought maybe…….maybe there was a stream between the
two and there was pike in there as well. It was only a 7 mile 4 wheeler ride
from camp. On the way there we must have come across 10 hen grouse with a
clutch of chicks. The chicks would scatter as we approached while the hen would
feign injury in an attempt to lure you away from the chicks. If that did not
work they get aggressive and attack you! When we would come across a clutch in
the tall grass Barb would walk in front of the 4 wheeler to make sure we did
not run over any and about ½ the time she would get charged by the mom! It was
hilarious, the hen would hiss, puff up and charge her! We eventually made it to
the small lake despite the killer grouse and a few downed trees. We fished it
for about 45 minutes and……nothing…… it was a dead shallow lake. Oh well, can’t
win them all. So we packed everything up and headed to the nearby pike lake
where we spent 3 hours catching 9 fish (Barb 6, Jim 3 but who is counting). On
the way back we ran across more killer grouse and a couple of turtles that we
had to maneuver around on the logging roads.
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Mama grouse in attack mode! |
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Grouse chick on a rock |
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Not sure what this is but it looked pretty |
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Wild Rose |
I also got a chance to play with my GoPro and get some more
underwater video of fish. I still need some more practice but I got some
underwater video of a few walleyes we caught and a really cool video of my pet
northern. There is a northern about 34” that hangs around and will eat minnows
that are thrown to him. One day I got my GoPro and he was very cooperative
while I videotaped him. I will work on editing the video, post it on YouTube
and copy the link to the blog. In the meantime, below are a couple of action
shots from the video.
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A few action shots of a Northern feeding |
Footnote: No animals were harmed in the making of this
blog…..well, maybe a few fish and a couple hundred mosquitoes but Daisy is
doing just fine.
Wow! I'm jealous except maybe for the mosquitoes. I'd love being that far out and doing all that fishing. Not sure what Steve would do. Any golf courses nearby?
ReplyDeleteWell.....he could hit golf balls into the lake or swing at the mosquitoes with his pitching wedge!
DeleteSounds like fun exploring and catching great fish. I can't wait for the vids, the stills of the fish look amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Scott.... I need to find a guest up here that knows something about video editing......
ReplyDeletePoor Daisy! Sorry, I couldn't help but laugh reading and picturing poor daisy bouncing off the door. SO GLAD you got her back in safely!! LOVE the fish stories!
ReplyDelete