Warmer water brings more fishing activity on the Gunflint Trail

The lakes of the Gunflint Trail are starting to warm up.  As a result the fish are becoming more active.  Lake rout are still in shallow waters.  Bob Baker from Gunflint Pines was fishing in North lLake the other day and catching lake trout with stick baits.  He also got walleye and bass on Lindy rigs with night crawlers.  Tom Caldwell from Loon Lake Lodge has a party of three men up from the Twin Cities.  They caught a number of nice northern up to 38" and released them all.  There were also quite a few lake trout with the biggest weighing 15 lb. 4 oz.  Most of their fish were caught with rapalas in about 15 feet of water.  Gunflint Lodge had a party of three men out today (Thursday).  They came in at noon and one of the men, Tom Sehman (Cottage Grove, MN) had a 20 lb. northern caught on a Rapala Tail Dancer.  Debbie Mark from Seagull Canoe Outfitters says that her canoesits are using minnows to catch walleyes on Ogishkemuncie and lake trout on Gabimichigami in the BWCAW.

The big northern story belongs to Roger Campbell, a fishing guide who lives on Poplar Lake.  After being out on the water all day, Roger decided to play around for some small fish.  On his 5 lb P Class Florocarbon Line (this is a professional guide and not me talking), Roger put on a Weed Weasel Jig and a big minnow.  Almost immediately he hooked a huge northern but didn't have a net.  Slowly Roger worked the boat and the fish over to Trail Center Resort.  There he got a net and was able to land the 51" northern pictured above.  One of the neighbors looked on a table correlating fish length to weight for each species.  A 48" northern weighs about 30-31 pounds so this one was somewhat bigger.  Roger said the head was 10" across.  It was a personal record for him.

Ther are still an amazing number of animal sightings all along the Gunflint Trail.  Dave Schudy was fishing along the Clearwater Road one night.  He ran into 3 bull moose on the road.  Linda, our mail lady, has seen 5 moose and 2 wolves in the last two days.  Sue Arhendt from Tuscarora Lodge says they have a pair of trumpeter swans and some moose on Round Lake.  She reports that they co-habitat very well.  Sue was also out running with her dog one day.  They saw a moose and the dog barked as they ran past.  Coming back the moose barked ar them.  I understand that this was a "bark" and not a "snort."  Lin Sherfy from Rockwood Lodge reports that the yearling bear are out and about.  Like many teenagers, they seem to find trouble everywhere.  The moral of Lin's story is to not leave tempting food out for these youngsters to find.