What a difference a year can make. We are nearing the first day of spring which is debatably either March 20 or the 21. I prefer the 20th since it is also my birthday, and the winter season is still booming. Last year we were fishing in T-shirts and this year we are fishing in heated shanties.
The Gunflint Trail has been blessed with another few inches of snow this week and the temperatures are low enough to keep it from melting away. Our local amateur meteorologist, Robert Reed, reported 26 below zero this week for a low in the Mid-Trail area, and Saganaga Lake reported 30 below. I don’t think we will be losing the ice any time soon.
Despite the bitter temperatures this week I have managed to spend some time on the water. The ice is thick enough to reach the head of my power auger without having to add any extensions, but it is getting close. My three-horse auger can usually cut a hole without too much effort but lately it has been getting a little “fatigued” while boring through the solid black ice that is covering the lakes up here.
There have been some reports of big rainbow trout being caught on Birch Lake. The rainbows on Birch have been growing bigger each year but they are few and far between. They have been averaging between 21-23 inches. Portage Lake gave up a few splake for us this week in eight feet of water. There was not a lot of slush to contend with yet and they were just big enough to eat.
I have been guiding mostly on Gunflint Lake this week since it is still too early for the traditional “late-ice” spots to be working. The conditions are not any different than they were in late January and that is exactly how the fish are behaving. This might be one of those years that we have to contend with the ice on the spring opener.
The little bit of snow we have been getting is not enough to plug up the plowed roads on Gunflint Lake so it is fairly easy to access some deep water fishing spots with a 4×4 vehicle. The roads are above some proven lake trout spots and a heated vehicle makes a pretty comfortable ice shanty. I just wish the transducer cable for my Vexilar was longer so that I could mount it to my dashboard.
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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