Bronzebacks, walleyes, and pike all in the comforts of solitude. Does life get any better?
This year marked the 12th consecutive year that I have been able to share a trip to the BWCAW with a close college friend and we expanded this year to include another UMD alumnus. Through the years, we have targeted the first week of June off the Gunflint Trail to take advantage of lake trout being shallow and more accessible, but it seems these days the best time to go is when we have open space on the calendar. We set off last week on the Sawbill Trail and entered paradise on Kawishiwi Lake. We portaged through and made it to Polly our first day.
The resident bass expert, Matt, caught two modest bass on his first two casts. He joked about quitting and saying he caught a bass on every cast. He was using a Mepps spinner with a yellow skirt that the bass seemed to love. We caught most of our bass shallow, but most were not of great size. Matt advised that the bigger bass were likely out deeper. We caught bass on every lake we stopped at and they hit anything we threw at them.
I was surprised how shallow we found our walleyes. I tried deeper water with transitions to shallow water, but we found the largest concentrations of walleyes in shallow bays. The prime depth was 5 to 10 feet, regardless of light levels. Having said that, all the lakes we fished were tannic stained. We mainly used bait for the walleyes and the crawlers seemed to out-produce the leeches. Jason Halfen would have been very proud of me as I found myself dragging jigs much more than in the past. This past summer I have been an ardent student of the Professor Halfen School of Dragging. I can now come out and say dragging works from home water to the foreign water of the BWCAW.
Anyone that knows me knows I hold a special spot in my heart for the panfish. I was excited to hear that Malberg had a decent bluegill population. I set out to catch my first BWCAW bluegill. We found great numbers in a lillypad-laden bay, but did not find a good run of size. I was only able to find one worthy of the hot grease release.
We exited on day six and treated ourselves to a burger at the Trestle Inn. For those that have been to the Trestle, you understand the treat we had with our visit. The Trestle reeks of character and serves up an excellent burger.
Until next report, keep the hooks sharp and net handy.
Sully
I was thumbing for a ride.
The last night we had the fear of bears instilled in us so well from park services that Matt decided to spend the night in the canoe in the middle of the lake. The word was the crafty bears were even stealing food packs on portages when people double portage and leave packs unattended.
Did you see any moose?? I have a tag in that unit. Thanks for the report!!!
Kooty, we did not see any moose. We have only seen moose on one or two occasions on all our trips.
Best of luck on your moose hunting trip.
Sully
Walleyes in 5-10 feet of tannic stained water….hmmmm….where else do we catch shallow walleyes all day long in tannic stained water???? I’m glad to see that all that instruction this summer paid off.
Nice report bud!
Great report Sully, looks like alot of fun!!
thanks for the report Jason.
Nice report Sully looks like a blast!
Jason- Was Polly lake still bear infested? I taught an outdoor trip while attending UMD and took a group of people up there thinking it is easy to get to. Most of the people in the group had never camped before much less canoed. We camped on the north point of Polly and really did everything right. We were awoken by 3 circus bears one up each food pack tree working on the ropes, and the third waiting for the prize to drop. Once they dropped the pack they were gone. I spent most of that morning tracking down the pack and anything else that might have survived. Needless to say, they got everything. Good thing walleyes are pretty easy to catch in Polly. To finish the story, there were 2 Japanese guys on the trip. They were so scared by the bears they honestly did not come out of their tent the rest of the trip.
John
Now that looked like fun! I like your water walking pic
Great Report, Sully!
John-
We heard Polly was very bear infested. Although, we didn’t see any bears. I’m glad you shared your story because the park services worker described a similar scenario and I didn’t fully believe her. It’s unfortunate it happened on your trip, but you now have a GREAT campfire story. We also heard there are bears chewing through the “bear proof” containers. There is a particular bear that will charge right at campers, but stop short. I was trying to figure out who stood their ground long enough to find out if that bear would stop.
You are right, Polly is full of walleyes. The walleye stringer photo was from Polly. Most were the smaller size that I like to eat. The biggest walleye we caught on Polly was only 16”. We skipped over Koma, but I’ve got information since our trip that it was a mistake to not fish that lake.
I like the landscape in that area, but was disappointed with the congestion. I think the fires near the end of the Gunflint may have contributed to higher congestion in other areas.
Sully
Sully- Koma is a great walleye lake for numbers but like Polly not for size, all perfect eaters. I would reccomend hitting that lake next time thru.
John
Great report Jason! I made my first BWCA trip earlier this year, with James Holst. James and I used nothing but BFT ringworms for walleye and had a blast. We had portaged and paddled five to six hours in, so we did not get to see any dancing bears. From what I understand, the bear problem is caused by a people problem.
You are right about that Wade! I made several trips to BWCA from 1970 thru 1985…But some people thought BWCA was the Yellowstone Park of the North and fed the Bears…the Bears like easy meals and now you have problems.
The underestimated fishery there is the Largemouth…Several lakes have good populations and some real whoppers.
So it is true! After fishing a summer with Brookie you can walk on water!
Nice report Sully!