The Gunflint Trail businesses are all reopening for the winter season and the vacationers are beginning to show up. All of the usual winter activities are in full swing right now with the exception of lake trout fishing, which does not open for a little while yet.
There have been quite a few Nordic skiers around who say the trails are in pretty good condition. They do not require as much snow on their trails as the snowmobiles do. They also have the advantage of not dealing with a lot of throttle-happy paddle tracks wiping out every corner of every trail.
Pretty hard to trash a ski trail by skiing on it. Easy to destroy a snowmobile trail if you do not know what you are doing. Or just if you do not care.
The upper half of the Gunflint snowmobile trails are in worse shape than the lower half due to the lack of snow. From Iron Lake to Saganaga there are many spots where the trails have a lot of brush and are just slow riding. The poor trail conditions have nothing to do with the groomers or even the mountain sleds. There is simply just not enough snow beyond the Laurentian Divide.
The lower trails are all in very good shape for now and I was told the ride to Lutsen on the CJ Ramstad State Trail was very nice. They were well groomed and had plenty of snow to work with. The last couple of snowstorms did not reach us up the Trail like they did in town.
The hoarfrost we were getting last week was quite a sight to wake up to every morning. Thetrees were white and sagging from the extra weight on their limbs. Thefull moon made the evenings very bright and beautiful. It would have been the perfect time to try and catch some walleyes through the ice, but my wife and I have had our hands full with the latest family member.
I did manage to get out last Sunday just before sunset and fish for a couple of hours on Seagull. I had a couple of bites and my friend Mike Berg caught a lake trout that was quickly returned, but no walleyes to speak of. We were playing around with his Aqua View camera and I am always amazed at how different the bottom of a lake looks in deeper water. I would expect to see a lot of clay and rubble but it looks more like the surface of the moon.
We could see little craterlike depressions in one area and just a few feet away there are rocks shaped like dinner plates scattered around in small piles. If you tapped bottom with the camera the silt would stir up and the visibility would be zero for a while. That silt is why it is important to hit bottom with your jig or lure occasionally. It stirs up the bottom and gets a fish’s attention. They are used to seeing a lot of different insects hatching on the bottom and relate this to food.
Whatever your favorite winter activity is, the Gunflint Trail is ready for you. Come on up and spend some money, you will be glad you did. See you up here.
Cory Christianson, a graduate
of the University of Iowa, has
worked as a fishing guide on
the Gunflint Trail since 2000. 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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