The recent sunshine was such a relief, that it is hard to complain about the messy roads—but I will anyway. The nice smooth bed of snow that took most of the winter to create has been reduced to a slushy mess that is not easy to drive through and even harder to plow.
Sag Lake Trail, which is notoriously hazardous, claimed a few vehicles this week while the temperatures climbed into the 30s and rain fell like it was spring.
The fast meltdown caused metal roofed cabins to shed their entire load at once, and it is becoming apparent how vulnerable our winter actually is.
With only 12 inches of ice on the big three (Sag, Seagull, and Gunflint) and even less on the smaller lakes, it will have a hard time lasting as long as the weather continues to improve. It has been nice to feel the sunshine on my face for a change, but I could certainly do without the rain.
Lake trout fishing has been improving a little with each passing week—instead of catching one or two fish, we are now averaging six or seven, which is not a bad day of winter fishing.
The bigger lakes have not been giving up numbers like that yet, but traditionally they improve as the season nears the end.
Despite the wintry mix of rain and snow, Saganaga Lake had some die hard angler traffic this weekend, and it sounded like everyone was catching at least a few lake trout each day. The Canadian side is riddled with pockets of slush, as one would expect, but the hard packed “corridor” trail that leads to the border was still in good shape.
Minnesota Saganaga is within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), which means that all BWCAW laws apply, even in the winter. You are allowed to snowmobile on the corridor only, then hike to a fishing spot without any motorized augers. Hand augers are normally a little tougher to use this time of year, but a foot of ice is not hard to punch holes through. I even opted to use my hand auger while fishing Moss to help lighten the load that we were hiking in. What a difference from last year.
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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