Last week I was bragging about completing the outside work for this season, and I was wrong. We are now building a floating dock on top of the ice on Sea Gull Lake. Believe it or not, that is the easiest way to build one. I was worried about the ice since the dock we are constructing will be very heavy, but I punched a hole and found about eight inches of ice.
The property is located in a bay that has been frozen for a while so it was not too surprising to find some deep ice there. The main lake has only been frozen for a few days so there will be much less ice in the middle.
Gunflint Lake has barely even started to make ice. The shoreline on the main lake still has waves splashing and the bays are just beginning to skim over. Gunflint is usually one of the last lakes to freeze up completely. I suppose that is because it is such a deep lake with a vast area of open water.
I know that some people have been ice fishing already, and that is great. Just be careful. I dropped a tip-up on Sea Gull while working and actually had a couple of minnows stolen, but no fish. I might have fished this weekend if we had been around.
Rachelle and I spent this past weekend in Duluth celebrating our daughter’s first birthday. It was a lot of fun, and the Duluth Aquarium is a great place to host a party. They gave us a private room with an excellent view of the lake to open presents in, and then we toured the facility and saw a lot of interesting displays with our friends and family. I was most interested in the big ships. They have a video that makes you feel like you are captaining a ship through the “high lift bridge” channel. Looking down at 1,000 feet of ship in front of you while navigating this tight channel is quite a sight. I was also turned on to a web site www.duluthshippingnews.com, which provides information about all of the ships coming to and from Duluth. It even tells where they were loaded and what they are hauling.
The highlight for Sophia had to be the light display at Bentleyville, right next to the aquarium. Duluth’s Bentleyville light display rivals any light show I have ever seen before. They call it Bentleyville after the gentleman who first set up an amazing holiday light display in Esko, Nathan Bentley. It takes about an hour to walk the park and there was plenty of free popcorn, cookies and hot cocoa to boot. It was a little brisk that evening but we had Sophia wrapped up tight and she seemed to love all of the commotion. If you have not been to Bentleyville, I would highly recommend visiting. You could visit the Aquarium first and only pay for parking once since they share the same lot.
Things are pretty quiet up the Trail lately and if we do not start to get some snow they will likely stay quiet. I know that some Nordic skiers have been out, but that is about the only activity going on right now. It does not take as much snow to ski as it does to snowmobile. I have heard about winters without snow and maybe this will be one of them. The Farmer’s Almanac predicted heavy snowfall this season, so I have not lost hope yet. There is still plenty of ice fishing to do this winter, but it is a little nicer traveling with some snow on the lakes. Ice is hard to walk on, and the snowmobiles overheat too easily.
I remember drilling a hole last March on glare ice. The auger bound up a little and I started rotating around instead of the auger. A good pair of strap-on boot spikes took care of that problem. They say the best experience is taught by failure. At this rate, I should be an expert soon.
Cory Christianson has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing or wildlife reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218-388-0315. You can also visit Cory’s website at Gunflintfishingguide.com.
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