BWCA Memorial Day Lake Trout Trip

We started with ice on the trail (but not on the lakes) the Saturday prior to Memorial Day and finished with ice on the Saturday after Memorial Day- and at different portages on the same lake.  This photo was taken on the way in, on May 25,  somewhere between Round Lake and Bat Lake.  The cedar trees led to a lack of direct sun exposure to preserve this late May BW glacier.  Ironically, the ice that we saw on our way out seven days later was much thicker, and covered a larger area.  The folks at Tuscarora Lodge on Round Lake said that the ice had gone out only about a week prior to our entry date- the latest in recent memory.

My brother Tom making a cast on Little Saganaga with a moose shed in the foreground.  Our camp was on the edge of the burn area.  The rubberized landing net was a major improvement this year in terms of reducing down time and getting fish back in the water quickly.  Lake trout have a way of rolling in the net, tangling hooks in the process, but not with the rubberized net that we had this year.

This is not a spectacular photo, but it shows the way that we caught most of our lake trout- from shore with shallow running blue and sliver Rapalas or spoons.  After our trip when we talked to folks at the resort and on the trail, we found that a lot of people struggled in catching enough fish for a meal.  We had the opposite problem for once, trying to figure out the best way to catch fish that would allow them to be released and survive.  A couple of days, we ate more than we wanted, but didn't let it go to waste.  The best solution was to crimp hooks when using bait and to only use spoons otherwise (one set of hooks).  If we weren't worried about the mortality rate of fish that we released, there's no telling how many we could have caught.  Every lake that we fished, the lakers were withing 5 feet of the surface, even at mid-day.  I even caught one using a Tiny Torpedo- just to say that I did.  After spending the winter accumulating Rapala Deep Tail Dancers and the like, I never even used one.  Spoons and the shallowest running Rapala in the box did the trick- as long as they had silver, and hopefully blue in the color scheme.

BWCA Hard Bait Selection

What a great surprise the other day when I found out that I could get something that I actually wanted with my credit union reward points!  For X points, a $100 gift card to Bass Pro Shop.  After requesting the gift card with my reward points, it took at least a week for it to get here- perfect.  In the mean time, I racked my memory for what was always on my Rapala want list.  That list has changed significantly over the past three years, and not because I've discovered better hard baits, dumber fish, or anything to along those lines.

A combination of several factors led to my Rapala purchasing strategy:

1. I recently found that I love fishing and eating lake trout

2. Massive sale on certain Rapalas, especially Husky Jerk and Deep Husky Jerk on Bass Pro Shop website

3. Need to expand beyond basic walleye colors and expand depth/color variety

4. Again, lake trout... blue/silver has been good to me and was a priority (about 1/3 of my total purchase)

5. Purchasing multi-purpose BWCA lures.  The colors, sizes, and running depths of the raps that I bought are great for what I do- focus on lakes the first few weeks of the season, and walleyes after that.  The color selection and running depth was mostly based on fishing lakers for the first month of the season.

6. BWJ article that mentioned a white Heddon Hellbender as a money lure for lakers in the BWCA- great excuse to try a new lure!

Deer Hunting 2012- Still Waiting

I finally saw a deer from one of my stands yesterday, which was day 11 for me.  Trail cam photos like this keep me going.  I know the bigger deer are out there, just not moving during the day.  The deer that I saw yesterday was a doe, and I waited for about an hour and a half after she came through hoping that the buck would follow, which it didn't.  I went in for lunch and on my walk back I came within 25 feet of a little fork.  As I was walking "my" trail, which is actually a game trail, I had just thought about how well I had been doing at sneaking in and that anything in the field near my stand probably wouldn't have heard me.  The next second, a loud "snap" from a stick that I didn't see, and I figured I put anything nearby on alert.  Just then, I looked up and saw a tiny forkhorn walking toward me, on the same trail, not 50 feet away.  I froze and waited to see how close it would get.  Since he had his head down and I saw him first, all that he know when he stopped 25 feet away and looked up at me was that there was something in his way, so he stepped off the trail.  He went around me on the downwind side, passing at about 20 feet to my left.  I waited for him to catch my scent, and when he did, he scurried back about 30 yards and stared back at me.  I stayed frozen and he slowly walked away.  Hopefully that deer will live to be the size of the one in this picture.  The first shot from my camera was fuzzy because he was moving, so I couldn't really see the rack.  Based on the wide body and thick neck in this photo, I'm thinking that this is a pretty good deer, hopefully I'll run into him this weekend or during muzzleloader season.

Deer Hunting 2012- Week One

Our opening day party consisted of me, my cousin Tom, his daughter Katrina, my dad, and my brother Tom.  

I've spent the better part of the past 6 days in the woods and I still haven't seen a deer from my stand.  A scrape that showed up by my primary stand several days ago has not been checked.  There hasn't been a single track on normally busy runway and I could count the shots I've heard since Monday on one hand.  I'm home today, Saturday looks cold, wet, and windy, Sunday doesn't look much better.  Looks like it will be another year of waiting for the rut to kick in and combine with better conditions late in the season.

Minnesota Deer Opener 2012

This is the first time that I've posted anything without a picture- unfortunately, the only one taken was of our hunting party without any deer, and that's only on my brother's camera for now.  Our party of five had only one opportunity in 2 full days of hunting.  Being a little more selective, a fork was given a pass on Sunday, the only deer seen while sitting on stands.  A few others were jumped while walking to/from stands or during drives.  It's been a slow start for most this year throughout St. Louis and Itasca Counties.  The weather was cloudy and mostly calm with a temperature of around 32-35 for daytime highs and not too cold at night.  A neighboring party did take a decent 8-pointer on Saturday, but it's been slow.  I'm not discouraged yet, still 13 days to go, and I'll be in the woods for most of them.

Pine Marten & Huge Rub

The pine marten (I think I'm sure this time) was out again during early October.  He was curious about what I was, but not very afraid, knowing that he was safe in this birch tree.

I like this picture because you can see how big his feet are.  Maybe he is the reason that there aren't any squirrels around this year?  It sure would be nice not to have the "squirrel alarm" going off every 5 minutes this year.

This was a live tree... I put my trail camera here for three weeks just after this rub was made, but the deer never came back.  I wish the camera could have taken a picture of the monster that did this damage, but I guess I can wait til next weekend to meet him- I think I'll know him when I see him.

Bow Season 2012

Katrina, my cousin Tom's daughter, took her first deer this week.  She was hunting alone and I was "on call".  I helped her track the deer- she took a 25 yard shot and it was right on the money.  The blood trail was easy to follow for the first 75 yards, but it took at least half an hour to finish the last 25 yards.  I've never hunted with a bow before and we both learned a lot from Katrina's friend Jim, who skinned out and broke down the deer, which is something that I've never done.  In our family, we've always taken the deer to a butcher for processing.  Jim made it look easy and gave great instructions, but I know that there's a learning curve.  My brother Tom also helped out today.