The lingering fall has become so nice that I simply refuse to recognize how unusual it is to still be fishing comfortably from a boat. Alright, relatively comfortable, not every day has been a gem this week but you will not hear me complaining about a few cold days in October.
As nice as it has been, I am not foolish enough to not realize that our pleasant days of sunshine and warm breezes are numbered. The trees were unable to hang on to their leaves through the overnight frosts and high winds this week. With the exception of the gold tamarack trees our colorful woods are beginning to look bare. Once they lose their needles I am ready for snow.
Cold clear evenings in the fall are great for stargazing, especially when accompanied by a dazzling display of Northern Lights. Some nights are easy to recognize the ensuing display by seeing a bright horizon to the north immediately after the sun sets. Many times the “pre-show glow” is subtle and other times it will look as if you are seeing a stadium lit up from miles away.
Green is the most common color, and the Northern Lights may not be anything more than a green fog, but every once in awhile they explode in a ballet of red, yellow, green, even violet.
We are fortunate to see them often on the Gunflint Trail but the older we get the earlier we find ourselves in bed. When we were living without running water and using an outhouse, we would see the Northern Lights more often since they can happen fairly late in the evenings—that might be the only downside of indoor plumbing.
There is still one more week of fishing for me and it seems the weather is going to hold out a little longer, despite getting a little colder each day. The non-angling readers will have to hold out another week as I report the final days of walleye fishing on Saganaga Lake. After my last day of guiding it will be time to cover the boats and gear-up for the next adventure, which for me will be the deer hunting season. It has been two years since I have seen a deer during the season, which may not qualify me as a hunter as much as a guy hiking in the woods with a gun.
Hopefully this year will be better.
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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