Longtime fishing guide Dennis Todd, doing what he loved best.
Gunflint Trail residents were stunned to hear the news that longtime Gunflint Lodge fishing guide Dennis Todd, 59, was missing and presumed dead after a boating accident on Northern Light Lake in Ontario, Canada at about 10:45 p.m. on Thursday, September 12. On Sunday, September 15, a Canadian dive team using side-scan sonar located and recovered Todd’s body near where the boat had overturned.
The experienced guide and his companion, another Gunflint Lodge employee, Christie Gavin, were on their way back to the lodge when something caused the boat to overturn, tossing them into the water. Gavin told officials that she thought the boat hit something in the waters of Trafalgar Bay, however the OPP investigation, still underway, does not confirm that. It is possible that Todd lost his grip on the motor, which at full throttle would cause the boat to make an immediate 90-degree turn with enough force to eject the passengers from the boat.
Whatever the cause, Gavin and Todd were thrown into the water. Gavin was wearing a life jacket and was able to swim to a nearby island. Todd, who was not wearing a life jacket, did not resurface. Once ashore, Gavin flagged down another angler who alerted authorities.
Northern Light Lake is in Ontario, Canada and is reached by a short portage from Saganaga Lake. The Ontario Provincial Police responded, but sought help in the rescue and search from emergency responders in the U.S.
Cook County Sheriff Deputies, members of the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department and employees at Gunflint Lodge assisted in getting Todd’s boat and property secured and helped identify the area where Todd’s body would likely be found. The Thunder Bay OPP marine unit searched Friday through Saturday, with the assistance of Todd’s fellow guides— and friends—as the OPP underwater search and recovery unit was on its way.
The search ended at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 15, when the side-scan sonar located Todd’s body in about 46 feet of water. OPP continues to investigate the incident. Thunder Bay authorities will perform a postmortem examination of Todd’s body.
The Gunflint Trail mourns the loss of the man from Missouri who has been visiting the end of the Gunflint Trail since the 1980s and who has been a fishing guide at Gunflint Lodge for over 25 years. On the Gunflint Lodge blog, Lodge owner Bruce Kerfoot recalled the many ways that Todd brought the taste of Missouri to the Northwoods, such as providing “Missouri walleye” (catfish) for the Chik Wauk Museum and Nature Center’s fish fry fundraiser or transporting pigs north in his boat to teach Kerfoot how to make bacon.
Todd was renowned for his interactions with wildlife, having trained an eagle to come scoop up walleyes tossed from the boat. His name made a regular appearance in local fishing contests and he is known as one of the only people in the world to have ridden a moose. That incident in which Todd jumped out of a boat onto the back of a swimming moose was recorded in Gunflint pioneer Justine Kerfoot’s News-Herald column On the Gunflint Trail. Justine wrote about his adventure in a column entitled A Moose Rodeo.
Deeply saddened at the loss of this legendary Gunflint Trail figure, people like fellow fishing guide and current News-Herald Gunflint Trail columnist Cory Christianson said the Gunflint Trail wouldn’t be the same without Todd.
However, some say the sadness is eased by knowing that Todd died doing what he loved to do.
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