Plowing a road on the ice has proven to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. Our icehouse ended up on Gunflint Lake this year instead of Loon Lake because my plow was not able to move the hard packed snow from the Loon Lake public landing, so we decided to give Gunflint a shot this season instead.
The road goes to “ice house point” located a quarter mile north of the public landing, at least it did prior to being engulfed by the 40 mph gusts last week. It took two hours and a lot of shoveling to open the road up again as well as a little help from another truck, twice, but we got it done. So far the spot has not produced enough fish to justify the road, but our family is going to get some use out of it before the season is over and it is just so darn nice to unlock a door and start fishing.
Gunflint Lake has been showing two feet of solid ice this week and it “was” giving up some nice lake trout earlier in the season. Lately it has been a little tougher putting fish on the ice, but fish never seem to bite well during the coldest weeks of the winter. The warmer month of March can be the best fishing of the season and those days are not very far away. The sun comes out and fish start biting.
There have been a few moose passing time in the Iron Lake area between the two County Road 92 entrances and the two bulls are pretty large. It must be the same family or “herd” that congregated in this area last winter. It is interesting that they gravitate to the same few spots each year.
The only common denominator (that I can see) is they are using the burn areas adjacent to deep woods during the coldest weeks of the winter. I wonder if this is a defensive strategy against wolves or they need to graze on the smaller trees that are rebounding in these areas. Seeing a bull moose standing tall against a snowy backdrop is pretty memorable and lately they have been fairly easy to find.
As February unfolds and winter loosens the grip I would expect to start seeing more visitors on the Gunflint Trail. Meanwhile, it is a great opportunity for locals to take a drive up the hill and enjoy any of the establishments before they are taken over by the masses. We find ourselves dining out a lot more in the winter than in the summer. It is nice to enjoy these places when they aren’t so busy, and you typically see some people that you know without having to see too many of them at once. If that makes any sense?
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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