Two Fine Stories

There have been a couple of interesting stories on Gunflint Lake this past week.

Last Saturday Adam gave dog sled rides on the lake during the morning. In the early afternoon he decided to give his dogs a little more exercise with a run down to Camper’s Island, about five miles down the lake. So he and the dogs took off. The dogs were running so well that Adam climbed into the sled, pulled up the sleeping bag and sat down. In two minutes he was sound asleep. He woke up later on as two snowmobiles buzzed him. They had seen what appeared to be a rider-less sled going down the lake. Adam waved to them and they backed off. Coming back home, Adam took care to be visible as he slept in the sled.

My neighbor, Bob Baker, has been busy fishing on Gunflint this winter. I have to tell you about his latest technique. He goes out on the ice to about 40 feet of water. There he cuts a 2 foot x 4 foot hole in the ice. The free piece of ice is slid under the main ice to get it out of the way. Bob puts his ice house over this hole.

Now he is ready to fish. He has two lines which is legal for ice fishing. One just has a minnow on it. The other has either a Glow Buckshot (made by Northland Fishing Tackle) or one of about 10 other baits. This bait is either down on the bottom or just below the ice. He fishes with this for about 10 minutes. If nothing happens, he switches either the bait or its position.

Now the fun part starts. Bob has caught every fish this winter on his Glow Buckshot. It is actually light green in color. Many of the lake trout come right to the surface and hit on the shallow bait. He can look down and watch them making passes and hitting on his bait. There was even one time when he had a fish on the bait and he was watching another fish make a pass at his minnow. For a bit Bob thought he might have two fish on at once.

As Bob says, catching one or two lake trout is a good day of ice fishing. He usually fishes in the morning. By noon it is time to come in with his catch. Of course, with the big hole cut in the ice, you have to be careful not to fall in. The water is a little too cold for swimming but the lake trout love it.

Bruce and I spent yesterday running errands in Duluth. Among other things we bought one of those tiny digital video cameras. The idea is that I can upload a short movie for you. I am sure that this is going to take some practice. These things are never quite as easy as the directions say. It is like putting together Christmas toys for your children. So stay tuned in and we will see what happens.