Finally some Fish

 

Beautiful 9 1/2 inch bluegill

OK, it's not been a very good start of summer.  Coupled that with being retired, quite honestly I am not sure where I found the time to get everything done before.  It seems like I get nothing done now, maybe I am just getting lazy, maybe less motivated, I sit back and think that when working everything got done on a regular basis.  This would be including fishing.  The last 6 weeks have been brutal regarding the hot and dry weather.  I did make it out to Mille Lacs in June but only caught 2 fish in the boat, a nice smallmouth and a sickly looking walleye.  Compare that to the last couple of years where we would catch 25 - 40 walleyes, I don't know, maybe just losing the touch.  Personally think that we went too early as the bug hatch was in full bloom but again that just sounds like a great excuse...one of many I have these days.  The garden is starting to look good and just a few days ago we had a much needed 3.2 inches of rain at the house.  Still not enough to get the river back to a navigable level, but it's something to work on.  Finally my friend Bill Lundeen must have sensed my frustration and invited me to fish with him on Thursday.  The catch would be that we use my truck, his was in the shop.  Looking back that should always be the case when we use his boat.  Meeting at his place on Mille Lacs we drove to what Bill calls the orphanage and hooked up his older Lund 16 foot boat with a 70 hp Johnson.  I really like fishing out of that boat, however as I get older it seems that backing down the boat ramp becomes a challenge these days.  Thank the Lord Bill has patience!!  We headed about 45 minutes away to a "secret" lake to try for panfish.   Fishing for bluegills and crappies is something I love to do but seldom target.  Well my first keeper bluegill was a huge 9 1/2 inch fish caught on a Flu Flu jig with a piece of Gulp 7 feet under a slip bobber.  The lake was crystal clear so we fished the weed edges in about 9 - 12 feet of water.  It was a blast, with ultralight tackle these fish put on a memorable fight for sure.  Half the time my assumption was that a bass had struck the bait.  This lake has special regulations of only 5 fish per angler and we stopped short of 10 but it sure was exciting, and a perfect day after the rain.

Bill with his nice Bluegill

After 3 hours of great panfishing we loaded the boat up and headed for a designated trout lake nearby.  Using 3/4 to 1 ounce bell sinkers we rigged up a small spinner, gulp combination and started trolling the deeper water, assuming we were down 20 - 40 feet.  This lake was an old iron mine pit in the early 1900's and is quite deep.  With steep sides, often over 30 feet deep at 20 feet from shore, the Minnesota DNR regularly stocks rainbow trout in these lakes around the area.  What was nice about this lake is one can launch a regular boat rather than hauling a canoe down to the lake, much easier for me!  Another interesting feature is the water is super clear, the Lake Finder app states about 30 foot clarity.  We trolled for about 2 hours with the electric trolling motor and I swore something hit my bait but in the end we caught nothing but a relaxing afternoon on a beautiful lake.  It is interesting as there a a number of open pit mines that when in use continually had to have the water pumped out of them to prevent flooding.  The Cuyuna Iron Range is on the southwest end of a rich vein of iron ore that stretched from just east of Brainerd Minnesota, up through the Mesabi (Eveleth, Hibbing, Virginia, MN) and under Lake Superior before ending in Ontario.  Because the iron ore was so rich and accessible, the Cuyuna area was easy to mine at the time.  It is certainly interesting to study the history of the area and it's mining past.  When the mines became depleted the pumping stopped and eventually these pits filled up with spring water making them exceptionally clear, cold, and deep.  In some cases these old mines are often over 300 feet deep.  Of course as the mines became devoid of their rich iron ore, the mining simply moved northeast and followed the rich vein of iron ore.  Thinking of our inability to really understand how deep we are fishing I am going to propose to Bill that we try using lead core line for the next trip.  Having Suffix 832 Advanced Lead Core line, it sinks like 7 foot per color.  Lead Core lines are color coded every 30 feet, so if you want to fish 35 feet down simply let out 5 colors of line (150 feet) and you control the depth much more accurately.  I'll have to see what he thinks of that idea.  

Among other things this covid crap has really put a damper on our Lac Seul fishing.  It was closed all of last year and we should have already been there twice this year.  Talk of opening on August 21st is simply that, talk.  Even if they open it it's doubtful that some camps lack the ability to find people to work for a month, there are a lot of issues to be solved.  Lac Seul has been the highlight of my summer fishing adventures and admittedly not being able to go has taken some wind out of my sails.  Bruce and I have flown a few places for lunch, but  that's about it.  Mille Lacs has been closed for a couple of weeks now, as I said the river is extremely low, but eventually things will get back into the swing of things.   Hopefully I will have a positive report soon into the future and won't take so long!