My keen sense of birch pollen has finally released its grip this week—either the trees are going to have a bumper crop this season or my allergies are getting worse. A good rainstorm would certainly help wash away the green haze that is stuck to everything outdoors.
This might be the latest warm-up I can remember. I was told you can still find patches of snow in remote areas of the woods, black flies are beginning to appear, and mayflies will likely be hatching sometime in July. The few scattered warm days we have had seem to quickly create dry conditions. Gravel roads are so dusty that oncoming vehicles need to wait for the dust to settle before passing one another, and the grass has yet to need mowed.
Maybe it is simply a reflection of this slow-moving season, but I have been behind schedule preparing the lodge for summer. Our docks needed some TLC after the brutal windstorms last fall that ripped apart our boat lifts and sunk one of the rental fishing boats.
I tried raising the boat during that storm, but the relentless waves kept pouring over the stern faster than a five-gallon bucket could bail it out. The big waves pushed the boat off the lift, snapped the frame of the lift and then became tangled with the sunken boat halfway on shore. It was a mess that I finally had to leave for morning.
There has been enough precipitation to get the leaves budding and everything is beginning to turn green, but we can certainly use some more rain. Where I grew up in Iowa we sang, “April showers bring May flowers” but here it is more like, June showers bring July flowers.”
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. You can also visit Cory’s website at Gunflintfishingguide.com.
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