There was the unfamiliar sound of thunder rumbling in the distance last night. A true sign that spring is upon us. The golf ball-sized hail and 60 mile per hour winds that were forecasted fell a little short of the mark, but the storm had plenty of strength nonetheless. I called a friend up at Sea Gull Lake when I heard the emergency weather forecast and I was told that it had already happened up there. A torrential downpour pushed by high winds caused flooding as well as some fallen trees. I drove up the Trail this morning to help put a chimney cap back on to the Chik Wauk Museum that had blown off, and was amazed to see all of the flotsam on the road.
The Larch Creek launch, next to the Sea Gull Guard Station, is showing more water than I have ever seen and little streams are running down the shoulders of the road. I guess the reason I am so amazed is that we did not even receive a sprinkle at my house near Loon Lake.
The storm was from a system that ran from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to Canada and was wreaking serious havoc via tornados in Iowa. This storm had such a sharp edge to it that the Sea Gull area was getting blasted and we could only hear a faint rumble of thunder and some brief wind gusts from our place only10 miles away. Pretty amazing.
I think the Laurentian Divide has the ability to knock down certain weather patterns and we live just a stone’s throw from it. I have watched many weather patterns either break apart along Continental Divide or build and gain strength. I do not fully understand the relationship, but I am sure it exists.
Living in northern Minnesota seems to strengthen our natural awareness of severe weather. The blowdown storm on the 4th of July in 1999 alerted us with an ominous green cloud, but on a more subtle scale there are always telltale signs of dangerous 2weather2 &arriving.2
Severe temperature4 drops are a sure sign of moisture and falling barometers. Sudden changes in wind direction are another, especially if it is turning and increasing from the west. Most of our severe weather comes from the south and west. The more drastic the change, the more drastic the impact. Animals can also give us a “heads up” in terms of severe weather. Dogs and cats tend to get nervous, birds stop chirping and fish start biting.
I was guiding a married couple a few years ago and we were fishing lake trout on the Canadian side of Saganaga. The morning started out as calm and peaceful as you could ever want with a hint of mugginess in the air. I marked some fish on the sonar so we dropped our jigs and immediately the trout started to skyrocket for the bait. For the next 20 minutes we had non-stop action until we burned up a dozen ciscoes.
All of them were big and one even went 18 pounds. Hands down the fastest trout fishing
I have ever seen.
It was only 9 a.m. so we changed gear and went after some walleyes next. We anchored on a nearby reef and before we could get all three bobbers in the water, the lady angler was hooked up. Her bobber did not just go under, it went under sideways. This fish was on the move fast. We landed her 30-inch walleye, took a photo, and got her a new leech.
We were so excited about the action that we did not notice the thick eerie calmness that shrouded the lake.
The successful angler gave her bobber a cast and said, “Look at my reel!” Her line was unraveling fast even though her bobber had already landed. I looked up and her fishing line was spiraling up into the sky above us. I grabbed her rod and started reeling it in for her. As I lifted the tip of her pole up it began to vibrate and you could actually see a green spark in the center of the rod tip.
Before we could pull the anchors a sheet of heavy rain and thunder broadsided us. Lightning was cracking in all directions and the wind was gusting in a gale force manner. Luckily we were not far from Chippewa Inn and found shelter on the front porch of the lodge. It was an incredible storm to watch and only lasted a couple of hours.
The signs were all there. Hot, humid, and a 180-degree wind change but we were too excited about the fishing to pay attention. Even the fish were trying to tell us something was up by the way they were feeding so aggressively.
After the storm passed we could not buy a bite, but what a day.
Cory Christianson has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing or wildlife reports or stories torunshare, sendONEan emaTIMl to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218-388-0315.
Leave a Reply