Well, I can't believe it's already time for my 2008 Boundary Waters Adventure wrap up. This year when we arrived up on Basswood Lake the water temps were 58 degrees compared with last years 63.5 degrees. The lake levels were also up this year due to heavy spring rains and some heavy late season snowfalls. You don't even want to hear about the bugs & skeeters.
Despite the condition changes compared to last year the fishing started off with a bang just as it did last July. After the first few days we managed to catch two 30 inch eyes, two 29.5 inch eyes and a fair share of other hefty boys. Now how do you follow that? Well, you guessed it things shut down fast. The walleyes just seemed to shut down.
Now, as every good angler knows when this happens and you’re sure your doing everything just right, what do you do? That's the easy part. You reach for your list of excuses manual. On page 47 section 5 I found mayfly hatch. Doing further research I managed to find daily water temps not rising, the wind switched, mile high skies and wrong moon phase. There were also other excuses like the dog ate my homework, but that would be stretching the truth.
Thank goodness for old uncle smallmouth who seemed to take pity on us during the walleye strike. I have a few favorite smallmouth spots where you need to fish um deep (43 ft) and be patient. This worked out very well since I found them feeding on Cisco schools. One of the 20 inch plus smallies spit up an 8 inch Cisco during the battle and I posted a photo of the Cisco on a ruler so you can see for yourself.
During our second week it was 41 degrees one morning and the fishing was spotty. The water temps had peaked 67.5 degrees and kept fluctuating up and down with the cooler nights. Everyone I talked to was only catching mostly small smallmouths but seemed contented to take what they could get. I decided to take a few days off here and there since I couldn't justify the Gas, Bait, Portage, and Permit fees to fish every day for 3 weeks when the patterns were unfavorable for a while.
The 3rd week ushered in 3 days straight of high winds and electrical storms, so between Mother Nature's wrath and my commonsense I took 3 days in a row off from fishing. It was a wise thing to do after listening to the few (brave???) souls that ventured out and the campers that came back after a rough ride.
When the storms were done I set off in the morning for the portage and the fog was so thick you had to follow along the shore line at a fast Idle only. I found Mindy La'Tourell running the tow boat and decided to follow her the rest of the way to the portage. Her vision was much better than mine and we made it.
Mindy recommended I fish the spillway till the fog lifts. That suggestion made way to much sense, so I worked my way out of inlet bay to the opening of Bailey Bay. I figured I was toast now but managed to island hop in the soup till I knew where a reef was and threw out a florescent orange marker. Another boat soon did the same thing and stopped about 100 yards from me. The fog started to lift ever so slowly and I continued to back troll the deep side of the reef when my rod tip gave off a thump...thump. I back reeled 2 turns and set the #8 hook. Sure enough it was a big creature with the white spot on his tale. Wound up with a nice 10 pound eye.
I left the fish in the net and kept it in the water while steering the electric motor over to the other anglers and asked the local guys to take a picture with my camera. "Heck yah" they said and after a quick shot I released the fish unharmed. Thanks to the fog since I usually don't fish that area. I know I spent a lot of time talking about the weather conditions, but it's all part of the outdoors adventure. Yes, we did have some great weather also. Most days were in the low to mid 70's and you can't beat that.
During our 3 week adventure I put on 376 miles by water and that's only because I missed more days on the water this year. One year we covered 575 miles on the water and that's as far as the mileage from Ely to my home. I tried to imagine driving my boat all the way home from Ely.
Roger Banks who was staying over on Shagawa Lake contacted me and wanted to do a Basswood trip again this year. So, we hooked up on July 13 and I explained to Roger that it's been a weird pattern this year. The smallmouth hadn't spawned yet as of last week and the walleyes were on strike. Roger always shows up with positive outlook and this time it paid off. We had a blast working on some huge hog smallmouth and next moved to a popular walleye reef.
Within 10 minutes of our arrival 3 boats from the resort infiltrated the area. The only thing that saved us was the fact that they were fishing to shallow and were very busy communicating from boat to boat. My plan was to work the deep flats around the reef and it really worked for us. We caught a 24,26 & 27 inch eye all within 20 minutes.
Each time Roger sets the hook, he has a habit of standing up to play the fish but that's a no no when you have other boats around. Therefore I had to keep ragging at Roger to sit down before our neighboring anglers see him playing a big fish. I even turn the boat around to the blind side so folks can't see us playing and netting fish. To some that my seem a little extreme, but take my word for it that folks will automatically start to glide straight for your boat when your catching and their not. Roger calls me the stealth fisherman.
Special thanks goes out to Bob Dahl's family (from da hudder side of Gilbert MN.) who invited the wife and I to visit their Basswood camp over on skid way. After a couple of hours of good conversation it was time to head back. Bob's sister Becky wouldn't let us leave until she fixed us a care package. All homemade goodies meat pie, banana bread, zucchini bread and deer sticks. The day Bob's crew packed up camp the weather was stormy and windy and it took them 3 hours in the boats to get back to safety.
I hope you found my report somewhat interesting and I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience the BWCA and I'm sure many of you already have. If you would like to see some of the photos from my trip, please visit my web-page at http://leeslakegenevaguideservice.com/boundry_'08.htm As usual all of the larger fish are photo and release with most of the fish never being photographed since I fish alone most of the time.
This year our best Walleyes were 30" and the best smallie was 21.5 inches. Looking forward to next year and more Boundary Waters Adventures.