The wild weather this week has made for some tough fishing. We have had cold fronts followed by lightning and thunder followed by bright sunshine with no wind— brutal. Early season angling on the Gunflint Trail is very weather dependent, and that is why the bite has been tough lately.
Fish “turn on” before a storm which makes it very enticing for anglers to justify one more cast in hazardous conditions. I fish in the rain a lot. If we cancelled every rain day I could not make a living as a fishing guide up here, but I do not mess around with lightning. Much like Newton‘s third law of motion, the brief flurry of bites before a storm simply means there will be an equally adverse bite once the storm has passed. As a fishing guide who is on the water regularly, it is better to see steady weather (steady barometer) which generally equates to steady bites.
Water temperatures are finally in the 60s and fish should become more active soon. Northern Light Lake in Ontario has been giving up a dozen walleyes each day but we are not seeing the big schools of hawg-size walleyes that have made the lake so famous. I would expect that to change as soon as the lakes continue to warm-up and the spring bug hatches subside. The multitude of bug hatches provide easy meals for all of the fish in a lake and typically result in a tough day on the water for anglers.
Abundant rainfall this week has caused the forest to erupt with green. The grass in our back yard went from flat brown and spotty to lush and green in a matter of days. It is amazing how long plant life seems to sit idle up here, then for a few short months it just explodes. I planted a dozen white pine seedlings in flower pots last spring and my fatherin law took six of them back to Bloomington. He returned the flower pots this spring and they are all twice as big as the six that stayed on the Trail with me reconfirming that we have a very short growing season up herewhich is why we wait until the middle of June to plant our vegetables.
…And if you cannot remember Newton’s third law of motion, just ask a high school student.
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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