Boundary Waters/Quetico Trip for 2001

June 8th-17th, 2001
Day 7:Thursday, June 14th, 2001 Daytrip to Cypress


After catching over 100 fish on Wednesday, GadgetMan and I decided to take a day trip to Cypress and Ottertrack Lake.  These two lakes have proven to be quite productive this time of year.  Last year, we caught decent numbers and decent sized fish on both of these lakes.  Since the trip was going to be a rather long day trip, we decided to use our final MRE for lunch.

GadgetMan and I started the day around 5:00am.  The day started out as most other days on this trip in the BWCA with nasty gourmet oatmeal.  We also finished up the final package of country ham.  Although the country ham was pretty salty, it still tasted good.  A small package of the country ham, or the country bacon is a little too much for 2 people, but we managed to eat it all.

As with most other days on this trip, the weather was cooperating.  We had virtually no wind, and were able to make it from First Bay to Monument Portage on Swamp Lake in just under an hour.  I remember on my first canoe trip in the Boundary Waters, I told my canoe partner that I was never going to cross Monument Portage again;  It was just too tough of a portage.  Well, since that trip, I have made trips across Monument Portage nearly 20 times.  Monument portage this time was a breeze.  There was nothing to it.  As most of you know, Monument is more a highway than a portage.  A little rocky, but basically 40 rods up, and 40 rods down.  

On the other side of Monument Portage, I pumped some water.  I have used the same PUR Scout for the last 3 years with the same filter cartridge.  After 3 years, it is beginning to show signs of clogging.  To the filtered water, I squirted a couple squirts of Crystal Light peach tea drink mix.  For those who have never used Crystal Light.........this stuff is just about the lightest drink mix that you can take.  I repackaged the 2-inch tubs into a squirt bottle.  The squirt bottle will usually hold 4 or 5 tubs of the drink mix, and weighs only 1 or 2 ounces.  This is enough drink mix for 10 quarts.  I usually take 3 or 4 different squirt bottles with lemonade, tea, peach tea, and raspberry ice.  Nothing too it and a great change from just water.

We hit Cypress Lake around 8:00am; a little later than we wanted, but still managed to find fish in some of our favorite areas.  Cypress Lake is full of submerged humps, islands, flats, and long sloping points.  These areas make up about 10 percent of the total volume of water.  If you remember the old saying, "90 percent of all fish in a given body of water are usually caught in 10 percent of the water."  This is the 10 percent of Cypress Lake that you want to fish.  At least for smallmouth bass, that is.  GadgetMan and I fished 20 different spots on Cypress Lake, working our way back to where the portage into Jasper Lake (the Quetico Jasper Lake) is located.  All along the way, we managed to find fish in these known locations.  In one particular spot, I saw the largest smallmouth bass I have ever seen in the Boundary Waters.  I estimated this fish as being close to 6 lbs.  The fish was on the nest, and was pretty easy to see.  Since the wind had picked up,  I was not able to relocate the spot where I saw the fish, but it was definitely a smallmouth bass, and a large one at that.

As lunch approached, and then passed, the fishing started to get a little tougher, but we still managed to catch fish.  The wind really started to pick up, and paddling the far end of Cypress Lake (also know as Ottertrack) became increasingly difficult.  We were on the far end of Cypress with a 20-30mph wind blowing directly in our face.  It was nearing 3:00PM, and we decided to start heading back to the main body of Cypress Lake.  The paddle from the far end of the lake (near the portages into Banta) was not too bad, but once we rounded the corner, the wind nearly blew us away.  

With the wind as bad as it was, we decided to cut across Cypress Lake, and paddle up the far bank.  This was a decent enough plan, but crossing any body of water with a 20mph wind can be dangerous.  Halfway across the lake, the wind picked up, and the lake began to whitecap.  We had seen whitecaps before, but these were pretty large waves, and were really scary.  We did manage to get to the other side without capsizing, but GadgetMan had to pry my white fingers from the paddle.  After paddling up the opposite side, we once again crossed to the left side, behind a large island.  This island is just before the cut that must be taken to head down Cypress Lake to Little Knife Lake.  We managed to tuck into some coves and behind islands enough to continue fishing.  It was in one of these coves that GadgetMan managed to catch the 300th smallmouth of the trip.  This being a significant number, he chose to kiss the smallmouth.  This is of course, on film.

It was now nearing 6:00PM, and we decided to head back to camp.  We figured we could fish a little in Swamp Lake, Third Bay, Second Bay, and First Bay on the way back.  The wind was still blowing pretty hard.  Holding the canoe in one spot to fish was tougher that we thought it would be, especially without an anchor.  We had decided earlier that using the anchor was too much trouble.  In past trips, an anchor was used on nearly every fishing excursion.  On this trip, we used the anchor on only two outings.  I'm not sure if this is because the weather was great pretty much all the time, or if we simply chose not to use it.  Either way, at least this time we did not pack in 10lbs of canoe anchors. 

We made it to camp around 8:00PM.  We were beat.  I chose not to eat dinner, while GadgetMan finished off our last package of tunafish.  Did I mention the tunafish would become our favorite meal of the entire trip?  It tasted so good, and was a great change from all the other stuff we normally eat in the BWCA.

This was yet another first.  2 consecutive days in the BWCA where we were in the tent ready for bed before the sun was down.

Tomorrow, we would greet Flukemeister, SmallieSaver, Mots, and the others as they passed our camp on their way into the BWCA.

Total smallies for the Day:70
Total smallies for the Trip:363

This page was last updated on: December 23, 2022