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!