So much for spring. It seems that winter and summer are the only two seasons this year, but I am not complaining. I spent a beautiful Memorial weekend on the water with my family and that is all I wanted to do. We are all looking forward to a very busy summer so it was nice to relax for one last weekend before the storm of tourism invades the Trail.
The days have been warm, even hot, but the surface water temperatures are still a chilly 38 degrees in the morning and by late afternoon they are reaching the 60s. This might seem a little drastic but it is only a representation of the surface water which acclimates quickly in the bright sun only to cool off each evening.
The shallow fish that are traditionally targeted this time of year are mostly females 20 inches and larger and are not typically found in schools yet which means a lot of searching for a few bites. Pretty soon the smaller males will be leaving the rivers and that is when the action gets a little better on Saganaga and Northern Light Lake, Ontario.
I have not fished Canada yet this year but I did haul a motor to Northern Light Lake and flipped my boat over one that was half sunk along the shore. The water levels are very high and most of the boats stored at the portage are half submerged and upside down from their winter storage. Flooded lakes with wooded shorelines will have a lot of flotsam drifting around that has washed into the lake, we found a tree that had to be 30 feet long drifting in the northeast arm of Saganaga Lake—not a good time to be running at night.
The Gunflint Trail has reacted quickly to the warm spell with an explosion of green. It must have happened overnight because we suddenly had leaves and grass growing everywhere—well everywhere but the south shore of Gunflint Lake. The high cliffs block much of the springtime sunlight and I think some of those properties might only get a couple of weeks of summer each year. There was even a little snow in the Mile- O-Pine ditch last weekend while the temperatures were in the 80s.
I am a little embarrassed to admit that I can barely grow tomatoes on top of the Loon Lake hill with full exposure to the sun while Marcia Lang can grow them better from her beautiful cedarshaded lake front on Mile- O-Pine. I think she could grow tomatoes in a cave if she had to. Thanks for the plants Marcia and wish me luck! I get a little better at it every year.
I would also like to thank Dr. Thompson for his kind words to the editor (it is nice to hear that someone is actually reading my column) but I do enjoy being on the community page. Witnessing our young family develop has opened my eyes to the power of community. The diversity of this page gives me the freedom to write about anything and, it doesn’t bother me to share the page with the fishing and the police reports. Some weeks I would suspect it is the most popular page.
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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