Boundary Waters 2022 - Wind Bound, Bass and Broken Rods, Great Time
6/24/22-6/27/22 - This year my good friend Niko and I headed north for a 3 night 4 day Boundary Water trip. My fishing buddy Frank had originally planned to go, but had to cancel a few weeks prior.
Niko is a great guy, but not an angler or much of an outdoorsman. He’d been to the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) once before, on a short trip with his brothers. Other than that, no camping experience. It was a blast to show him the ropes and give him a glimpse into what I love doing.
We found some nice smallmouth, a handful of solid largemouth and 1 pike. Niko landed 8 small mouths, including one bruiser. Biggest fish was a thick shouldered 19inch small mouth that nailed the whopper plopper on the surface. That one was fun.
All of our fish came on either the Whopper Plopper, a mimic minnow / paddle tail, or a slip bobber with a weighted night crawler on a floating jig head.
On Day 1 I broke two of the three collapsible fishing rods that I brought. One tip section broke after the rod fell to the ground, and the other tip section snapped in half as I was casting. I was excited to have the collapsible rods, thinking they would be advantageous for our 7 portage. Turns out, they weren't quite up for the test.
We found ourselves windbound on Ensign Lake on Day 3. As whitecaps raged across the big open water, we made 2 sketchy crossings to work our way toward our intended portage to Boot Lake. After nearly tipping once, we pulled to shore and hunkered down in the trees as waves crashed against the shore and wind whipped rain across the lake.
After a two hour window the wind calmed enough for us to paddle for about 20 minutes, before having to pull off again and wait it out. Eventually we found another weather window and fought our way to the portage.
Great trip. I didn’t get to fish as much as I would have liked. Two broken rods, canoeing and camping that was more challenging than anticipated and showing Niko the ropes. But we still found some nice fish and had a blast in the Northland. Tough to beat that.