Boundary Waters/Quetico Trip for 2001

June 8th-17th, 2001
Day 9:Saturday, June 15th, 2001 Final Day in the BWCA

Normally, we plan for an 11:00am pickup at American Point.  This year, we opted for a much later pickup.  Earl at Superior North Outfitters told us the last pickup time was 5:00PM.  So it was, we chose to be picked up at 5:00PM.  Since our group had basically split up 4 days earlier, I was a little concerned about logistics, especially since we had not seen the other two members of our party since Monday Morning.

We had told Mots and his partner that if they paddled over to our campsite, we would give them the real story about where to catch the smallies.  Actually, last night, we had told both groups basically the same thing, and they already knew how to catch the fish.  Mots and his partner were supposed to arrive around 7:00am, but they didn't make it to our camp until 10:00am due to bad weather.

We broke out the maps, and discussed where we had caught fish on Cypress and First, Second, and Third Bay.  After talking for a while, and trading our last package of summer sausage for a roll of Oreo cookies, we decided to take it easy and just relax.  After all, we had sore-mouthed so many smallmouth on this trip, I was actually tired of fishing.

This is when I discovered that Mots and his partner did not have any members of the magic bait number 2 family.  I looked in my tackle pouch, and handed over the last members of my arsenal.  We also gave them most of our leftover food.

We broke camp, and decided to fish our way out.  This would turn out to be nearly impossible.
After leaving the protected cove of First Bay, Saganaga hit us with all of her fury.  The wind was blowing about 20 or 30mph.  The waves were 2 or 3 feet with some breaking larger than that.

We tried for about 30 seconds to fish, and then realized that this was some pretty dangerous water.  We ended up spending the next hour in the worse swells that I have ever experienced in a canoe.  There were times when the approaching wave would be 1 or 2 feet higher than the top of the canoe.  Trying to keep the canoe with the waves, instead of sideways to the waves was nearly impossible.  In a few instances GadgetMan would tell me to dig my paddle in..but there was no water under me to dig into.  I'd look down, and the water was 2-3 feet below the end of my paddle.  I was scared.  I think the experiences on Saganagons, and at Silver Falls really prepared us for this type of water, but I was still scared out of my pants.

We were hugging the southern shoreline of Saganaga.  Sometimes, we were a little too close.  In a few instances, a large wave would just push us into the trees lining Saganaga.  It always amazes me that we didn't swamp that canoe that day.

We finally did make it to American Point, but our pickup time was not until 5:00PM.  Not only were we 4 hours early, but we were also on the wrong side of the lake.  We were supposed to be picked up at Hook Island, not American Point.  At American Point, GadgetMan recognized some friends from Kentucky, and we talked to them about fishing, the weather, and our trip in general.  They had came in the night before, and basically had become windbound at American Point, along with some 20-30 other people.  Talk about a major pain in the butt.  There were 4 or 5 groups waiting here for the weather to break.  Some of these people had tried to head out into Saganaga the night before, but swamped their canoe almost immediately.  By the time other members of their party and some outfitter boats had reached them, they had drifted nearly 2 miles away, and were starting to suffer from hypothermia.

We finally managed to flag down a boat from another outfitter, and they notified Superior North that they had a tow waiting at American Point.  The other two members of our party were at Hook Island, and also flagged down a boat to bring them back early.

Our trip was over, except for the long drive home.  Paul and Alan were pretty angry with us for leaving them, but understood and kind of agreed to our thinking.  

On the way home, we managed to cover most of the trip from both groups, and I think we all agreed that the trip was a complete success.  Alan and Paul managed to catch decent numbers on Saganagons, and actually caught some larger fish. 

This trip will go down in the history books as the best fishing trip anywhere for me.  Someday, I hope to have an ever better trip, but I don't think I ever will.



Epilogue: Quetico Trip 2001

From this trip, I learned many things.  Here are some of the basic things that I will remember for next year regarding this trip:

1. I am not the robo-fisherman that GadgetMan is........he will outfish nearly everyone I know.  Not only will he outfish nearly everyone, he will also outlast darn near everyone.  He is a wildman when it comes to fishing.

2. I will never take the gourmet oatmeal again.......The  stuff sucked.

3. The plastic pouch of Albacore tuna is the best stuff you can eat out there.

4. 2 power bars per person per day (36 total for the trip) are way too much.  Not only did we take some 20 bars back to Louisville, these things weighed about 20lbs.

5. MRE's are very heavy, don't pack very well, have too much garbage, but will always make a trip with me.  They work better than anything else when robo-fishing.  They are great in a pinch, and give you a huge amount of food and energy.

6. We took way too much food.  I'm not sure if it is because it was so hot or what, but basically we did not eat.

7. Make sure you get fresh pita if you take pita.  Our pita began to mold on Day 2.  By day 4 it was completely moldy and, had to be discarded.  Actually, I packed this stuff back to Louisville, and found it a few weeks ago in the bottom of my food pack..Yummy.

8. Full water bottles don't.repeat don't float.

9. Single Portaging is cool, but don't kill yourself

10. Kevlar canoes and bentshaft paddles rule.but renting them is very costly.  These added nearly $200.00 to the trip for us.  Maybe it is time to buy a canoe.

11. I really missed my wife and kids on this trip..maybe I'm getting old, or maybe I'm wishing someday that they would come with me.  Either way, I really missed them on this trip.

12. I took way too much tackle that did not get used.  Next year it all stays home except for magic bait 1, magic bait 2, 1/8oz spinner baits, 1 small crankbait box, and a few thousand other things.

13. GadgetMan's tent is great, but I wouldn't want to set it up in a hurry..with 6 poles, it is tough, and I don't think 1 person can handle the job alone.

14. Leatherman multi tools do not float.

This page was last updated on: December 23, 2022