Day 0
I ran out of work on time and grabbed my daughter from day care. My wife left work on time as well. After a brief goodbye, and some last minute additions to my gear, I was off to the airport in Detroit.
I had my usual luck on the flight ... It was packed and I was sitting next to another big box, a person like me. I would never sit next to a little thin thing that only takes up half a seat, I always end up with someone like me who is tall and bulky to be comfortable in these boxes of sardines are called airplanes. I landed at 21:30 local time in Minneapolis, and waited for my luggage. To my great surprise and a piece of luggage is made here. Unfortunately, due to the slow loading time and additional wait before the flight took off, the rest of my crew was waiting for me for an additional hour.
The rest of the crew picked me to jump-n-run cargo space, and we went to Ely. I think it's about 4 hours, or slightly more, with the stops we made and the deer we had to dodge. You watch them, they are thick out there. We finally arrived in Ely at 02:30 and decided to nap for a couple of hours before we met with the outfitters.
Day 1
We met the guys from the wilderness outfitters at the local breakfast joint (I can not remember names, but excellent food) at 6 o'clock in the morning. After breakfast we went back to the supplier and packed our gear. We had two canoes, six packs, and two rod tubes. All you need is in these packages, including our food, fishing gear, tents, clothing, utensils, etc.
We headed off saws sisters around 07:30, and climbed into the canoes around 8 sati.Voda is high enough that we could canoe series Pickett creek without much difficulty. I was in a canoe with our guide Jeff. During the first few minutes he went over basic canoe strokes and their effects, and we tried them in the slow movement of a winding creek.
Wise Lake was our first open water to cross and did not take long for real. I did not realize, however, that the nastiest fare of the trip was at the other end ... "Stairway To Heaven". I told others in the group that it was nasty, but I podcijeniti.Vozarina road was slippery with mud. In the first half of Portage is mostly gravel road uphill and the second half of the incredibly nasty downhill, which is composed of water smoothed rocks like steps, if steps had done a foolish man. I huffed and proud of my way to one side and began a series of others, but I continued to fall with twice the weight of packaging. One of the others returned and helped getting the top package of my back and I end up without falling freight rates and braining himself on a rock. After what seemed like forever, but really it was just a few minutes, I made it through and arrived in Portage sandpit lake.
paddle around the sandpit was uneventful. While the lake is not really that big is very nice and there are supposed to be a decent walleye and smallmouth in the lake, but it can be said for a lot of lakes in the BWCA. In short, we arrived at the Portage between the sandbox and Mike cans. This transfer is more than the first fare, but it's a little easier because the slope of the uphills and downhills are not as great. You still need to watch the ground, but do not feel like its going to die if you fall over.
Once you have completed the Portage sandstone we found ourselves paddling through the cans of Mike Lake. On some maps this lake is known as the Murphy Lake, but no one seems to know why. Tin Can Mike looks a lot like sandstone, only bigger. Again, he apparently has a good population of walleye and smallmouth, but we have not been there in a tin can zaustaviti.Vozarina Mike Lake takes you on a horse lake. I do not remember much about Portage trail between the cans and Mike Horse Lake so that he could be real tough.
Now, when we are riding our destination lake is a river. Fortunately for us there is not much wind that day, because our guide said that this lake can get pretty nasty row over when the wind picks up. We paddled halfway to the lake and turned to the east of the river horse. Shortly afterwards we came to our first river transportation costs. At this point, guide us to leave the canoe and he put them through a very short rapids, one by one, and we have gone to the other side. There were several short rapids to negotiate before the next Portage River, and they are monotonous, because we took our time and picked a good line through each. The following Portage River is quite a bit longer than the first Portage River, but still no more than a few hundred meters. Back to the river and we paddled for a while before reaching the final before falling Portage River. This is another average Portage with nothing special to describe, but beautiful scenery as always. We are now in the last part of the river before the Lower Basswood Falls.
There are two different portages to know if the lower Basswood falls, one on the American side and one on the Canadian strani.Kanadski fare little better in the long run, because your position downstream from the outflow of the fall and make it easier to start paddling . After passing the Lower Basswood falls we are now in Crooked Lake.Portaging much for us, because our destination is a skull and crossbones.
skull and crossbones camp site is located approximately 4 mile paddle down stream to Crooked Lake. It is situated on the southern point near the current south of Wednesday zaljeva.Veslati to this place is very nice because it goes some pictographs located on a high rock wall. As we approached our destination the time he began to turn for worse as we begin to see the thunderheads roll in. We began to paddle a little faster because we heard the crack of thunder in the distance, and we need to camp before the rain started. We got our rain gear and put up a tarp over the area near the firepit and stored our gear there, we dug up tents. Once the monsoon has brought, we ended up setting up camp and decided to do a little fishing.
south of our camp are two separate electricity meter swimming pool with islands in the middle. We began to move around in the current eddies and jigged for Walleyes. Nobody caught any big they are, but we did catch enough for our group of four to dinner. Until then, it was dark so we headed back to camp, had dinner and collapsed into our sleeping bags.
Day 2
Day 2 brought more rain and wind. We decided to fish streams south of the camp and close to the camp that day because it's Wednesday the bay churned to foam. While we fished in the bay across from the camp we saw two canoes begin Wednesday in the Bay, a few minutes later they returned after seeing the waves at bay. Towards the end of the day the sun came out over the wind lightened a little, but it's still pretty windy. We did not catch any huge walleye but we did catch enough for another dinner.
Day 3
3 days have seen better times, and our tent was the mascot. It seems the local spiders like to sit outside our tent every morning. He was about two inches across and you have interesting patterns on their backs. That day we went to the third current and the fish after the network some minnows in the shallows near the camp. Anyone caught walleye and pike, but it was not the trophy that day either. Again we had enough for dinner.
4 day
4 day brought more wind so we decided to fish around the camp. More eating-sized walleye were caught and a few pike and smallmouth made one nastup.Smallmouth bass were 22 "and 21" respectively, and quite chunky. That night we grilled fish instead of deep frying them, it was very good. I would suggest to anyone grill walleye. I would even consider leaving the oil at home all together and just make a basic grill, spray some butter and some spices.
Day 5
We decided to go back to the third current that day come rain or sunce.Dan began cloudy with a nice drizzle. We got almost to American power and wind whipped into a frenzy. Trying to paddle against the wind through the current was quite intense because it generates some nasty white hats to meet the current narrows. We fought to the third current and waited to see if it will wind back down, but never did. We went back down through the current U.S. and found a place for lunch. After the siesta there and watching the time, we worked back down in the fourth exit from the current wind and fish. We drifted over the area above the fourth power, and caught enough fish for dinner. Then we tried fishing spot back in the bay until Wednesday Tablerock, but nothing but a hammer handle Pike was on the line.
Day 6
The day we broke camp and headed back. Paddling the river horse is not too bad until we reached a small rapids that we drove through going downstream. We got the boat stuck on both occasions, but were able to get the rock. We portaged around the first rapids before entering the horse lake. When we arrived at the lake we had lunch and decided to fish for a bit before the BWCA. We saw several people fishing for walleye reef, but decided it was too early in the season that there is a lot there. We are focused on points and islands at the downwind end of the lake. We caught probably five walleye in a couple of hours we had to spare, and threw them all back because we did not take the fish out. Then we finished the paddle out.
When we arrived we saw sisters went to the bar and had a few cold ones while we waited for a ride. These were the best beers I have in a long time. Our ride picked us and took us back to the outfitters. Once there we got the keys to the bunkhouse and the long-awaited shower. After that we went to a cranberry and had a burger and beer for dinner, and then to bed.
Day 7
This morning we had another good breakfast at something-or-other CAF (still can not remember the name) and settled with the supplier. Amid all the hubbub on the night before we were able to lock the keys in the truck so we had to wait for the locksmith as well. Oh well, you know how it goes. After we were all settled and upward we did drive back to civilization. I was dropped off at the Minneapolis airport, and the rest of the crew continue to their destinations.
Conclusion
What about my first trip to the BWCA? I loved it. I would turn around and go back in srca.Mirno, fishing, scenery, it has everything. Although we did not catch any trophy walleye, and nobody told me that this year, I know you are there. This place is also a killer smallmouth fishing and some huge 20 # + Pike to offer. There is enough water to fish different waters each time for a lifetime, if you want to paddle in the back country.
I would also like to say that our supplier was very good. Desert Outfitters offers excellent equipment, canoes, and their guides are top notch. Jeff is particularly good, even when fish are not biting the best sense of humor and enough stories to fill in slow time. The owner of the fishing, trapping and hunting the area since he was a little boy, and probably knows as much or more about the area as anyone. Their bunkhouse is clean and that the reconstruction process it. While bunkbeds are a little squeaky were comfortable and shower was nice and clean.
As for the fishing gear is concerned you can probably catch all the fish you want with 1 / 4 and 3 / 8 oz jigs tipped with minnows or leachate. You can also catch fish on the gross body, but live bait seems to work a little better. You might also want to throw in some Lindy rigs in the case of fishing gets a little harder, so you can slow down your presentation. Others have found a lot of fishing slip bobber rigs tipped with minnows or leachate. Instead of bringing in minnows, I would recommend bringing the net and catch your own. This gives you less to carry and work equally well.
I will say that I did not adequately prepare for the trip physically. Next time I'll start taking long walks with a backpack full of weights. This will help condition me portaging. I still have not figured a good idea for a rowing machine, but just going out and paddling around somewhere.
