Daylight savings has been a hard adjustment for me this week after all of the festivities. I could have used an extra hour of sleep after Mush for a Cure’s Friday night party—which rolled into an early Saturday morning to prepare for a busy day of guiding.
Mush for a Cure was a lot of fun, especially since Rachelle and I had a sitter for the night, and there was a little under $40,000 raised which is very impressive. The number of volunteer hours that go into planning and laboring an event like this is incredible and I would like to thank everyone who takes part in helping the cause. If anyone has an interest in helping with next year’s Mush for a Cure, especially with planning and coordinating, contact Sue Prom at Voyageur Canoe Outfitters soon.
Last weekend we had perfect conditions for the event. The weekend before was too cold and by Monday of this week the temperatures skyrocketed to an unbelievable 52 degrees making lake conditions sloppy. I honestly thought my thermometer was on the fritz until seeing all of the snow melting from the roof.
Sunshine is such a welcome sight that it feels wrong to voice any complaints, however it is not helping the lake conditions or the gravel roads. The added runoff will make its way to the lake and settle in underneath the blanket of snow cover causing bad slush to get even worse, and the gravel roads are taking a beating as they melt.
Some local theorists have told me that it could freeze the compacted wet snow on the lakes’ surface and actually give us some better conditions for a while, but only time will tell. I am sure there are many of you who have been traveling the lakes without any problems but I am so tired of using a shovel this winter that I do not even want to take the risk of getting a snowmobile buried on a lake. The safest lakes that I have found to fish are Seagull and the west end of Gunflint, but that could change in an instant.
I joined a group of guys fishing on Sag last Saturday in Red Sucker Bay and they wanted to make a move right when I arrived since fishing was not going well in Red Sucker. I ran through a little slush near Stake Island along the way to meet them but nothing a little momentum couldn’t handle.
They decided to fish the same spot north of Jock’s Narrows where they had caught some trout the day before, but it was nearly impossible to navigate through the slush that was not there the day before. We decided instead to fish right in Jock’s Narrows just south of the slush and caught a handful of eel-pout.
Conditions can change drastically overnight and sometimes drilling holes will cause an area to flood since the lakes are under pressure from the snow weight. I am not sure if the holes drilled from the day before caused the slush, but it does show that you have to be prepared for anything.
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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