The Trail has truly “greened up” in the past couple of days. It rained through last weekend, causing the grass and leaves to explode into an ocean of green.
Every winter our yard looks a little barren since the leaves are gone and you can see so far into the woods. Once the leaves are back, the little voids between the branches are consumed with life and I feel a lot more secluded again. The downside is that now I have to start weed-eating and mowing the yard.
I use the term yard loosely, since it is more like a sandlot with a few scattered patches of grass. It is hard to get grass to grow on the sandy fill we use up here, but persistence pays.
The wildlife has all decided to appear in the past few weeks. I have seen two bears recently, and they were both pretty good size. One was on the Clearwater Road and the other was up on Sag Lake Trail. There have also been two moose — a cow and a two-year-old calf — that like to loiter on the Sag Lake Trail as well. In fact, they are usually lying down in the middle of the road and sometimes reluctant to move. It is a pretty good excuse to be late for work. The moose are starting to get their summer coats back, but there is still a lot of gray showing on these two.
I only fished on Sag a couple of days last week and there have not been a lot of walleyes caught so far. You have a better chance of getting a hawg walleye right now, but taking home some fish to eat is a tall order. Sag is traditionally slow with eatersized fish early in the season.
The smaller males will leave the river soon and then you will start seeing more action. I know that a couple of local anglers have been night trolling Rapalas with last week’s full moon and did pretty well, especially with the big fish, but still not a lot of numbers yet.
Last week I went to Little Trout Lake off of Lake Vermilion near Tower, MN, with my boss and friend, Michael Valentini. I had never been there before so the guide was being guided and it was quite an experience.
We motored with three in a square-stern canoe, equipped with portage wheels, across Lake Vermilion. The first portage was at Trout Lake where you can opt for a guy to pull your boat across with a four-wheeler, but we used the portage wheels and were in the next lake with relative ease. Then we motored across Trout Lake and paddled a short river into Little Trout. We only fished about a half of a day but caught many eatersized walleyes. One went 25 inches but most were around 17. Perfect for the pan and the action was top notch. Nice weather, the fish were biting and we did not have to work. Perfect.
I had a lot of fun on that trip, but you can do just as good on the Gunflint Trail right now, if you are willing to get into a canoe.
Clove, Larch, Granite River, Swamp, and Gaskin are just a few of many options this time of year. These lakes are all muddy and warm up much quicker than Sea Gull and Sag. They are also small enough that you simply have to follow the wind and fish any shoreline and point that are getting hit by the wind. Some of these lakes have rapids and that is always a productive spot. The base of any rapids will usually hold fish, but most of them will stage at the first significant drop off that is still in the current. Fish cannot always fight the fast moving water so they sit near a break and wait for baitfish to get swept right into their mouths. Minnows are usually the first choice, but leeches can sometimes outperform them in these smaller lakes.
Good luck!
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: Gunflintfishingguide.com.
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