The men and women in blaze orange have been working pretty hard this year. I see trucks parked in the same places every day but very few shots are being fired. With the reduction of tags this season, it could mean that the hunters are being pickier about the kill. The antlerless tags were only sold on a lottery system, which means fewer deer will be harvested. Northwest Minnesota was the only area still allowing does to be taken without a lottery system. The Department of Natural Resources has reported the harvest down five percent, as of week one this season, but this only makes sense with the number of tags issued being reduced as well.
I have heard rumors of walleyes being caught in some smaller lakes this week, but I have not been so lucky. The fish are not big and they are holding tight in the deepest holes of these small lakes. It makes sense that the fish will stage there until they feel a more uniform temperature throughout the water column. These deeper holes have more stable water temperatures and seem to hold fish until early ice. The lakes on the Gunflint have been showing ice every morning and I have to believe this weather will be changing very soon. Thanksgiving is this week and in years gone by people have been able to walk on the ice by now. However, this warming trend will certainly mean no walking on the ice this week!
Theonly wildlife I have seen lately has been the resident fox that lives mid-Trail between Windigo Lodge and Birch Lake. Even the pet weasel that was living below my deck has moved on. I suppose because we have not had anything outside for him to eat lately.
My mother-in-law, who grew up visiting the Trail every summer for over fifty years, remembers when the Gunflint Trail did not have any deer at all. She said that everyone went down near Highway 61 to bag a deer. It was unheard of to even attempt finding one up here. It just shows how things change. The thicker forests back then were part of the reason for not seeing deer. Since the blowdown storm and the major forest fires we have seen in the past thirty years, the deer population exploded simply because they could. With the woods being easier to travel through and the plentiful young pine trees for grazing, there is a much more ideal habitat for the deer to thrive.
Wolves have played, and always will play, a major role in deer populations, but the restructured forest is the popular opinion of many of the old timers. I love sitting around listening to my mother-inlaw’s childhood memories of Saganaga Lake and the Gunflint Trail. I wrote last week that I was happy with the recent road construction, but it is easy to forget that the Gunflint was a treacherous gravel road not too many years ago. Maybe I should just be happy with what we have.
My mother-in-law also remembers the times before the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and how much easier it was to use the woods. I cannot blame her for being discouraged since every year it becomes increasingly difficult to visit her beloved cabin on the Canadian side of Saganaga Lake. The increased paperwork is simply an example of tighter security at the borders.
The guides can certainly attest to this grief as well. They will now be required to carry a U.S Coast Guard Captains License to guide. Thisalso entails insurance, yearly physicals, CPR and First Aid, and a TWIC card. Themeetings are still being held to determine exactly what will be necessary for the guides as well as tow boat drivers who are transporting paddlers into the B-Dub. I will let you know more as it unfolds.
Cory Christianson, a 2000 graduate
of the University of Iowa,
has worked as a fishing guide on
the Gunflint Trail for nine years.
If you have any fishing reports
or stories to share, send an email
to: christiansoncory@hotmail.
com or call 218-388-0315.
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