Boundary Waters/Quetico Spring Trip for 2002

June 15th-23rd, 2002
Day 1:Saturday , June 15th , 2002A change in Plans


The Players:GeoFisher, Gadgetman, Alan, Josh, Dan, and Craig.  This would be Dan and Craig's first trip to the Boundary Waters..........and Craig's last trip.......more about that later.

Craig and Dan showed up to my hours about ½ hour early.  After spending 30 seconds looking at Craig's fishing lures, and gear, I went into action.....I emptied his tackle box, and told him to leave everything that he brought at my house.  I then loaned him the necessary fishing lures, and a fishing pole.  I had planned on loaning him a fishing pole, but I thought he would have fishing lures that would be adequate........10 packs of Magic Bait, a few hooks, some #7 rapalas, and we were off.
 
Just as last year, the drive from Louisville, KY was too long.  In the future, we may have to drive this in 2 days instead of 1..............NOT.  Last year, we stopped at Gander Mountain in Madison, Wisconsin.  This year, we would not be stopping due to a late start, and being stuck in traffic on I-74 for nearly 2 hours.  Man, what a mess. 

After Arriving at Superior North, we squared up with Earl, finished all last minute packing, and headed to the towboats.  The weather is pretty good.  It was a little windy, but not too bad.  As we were loading the towboats, I told Dan and Craig that they should put on their raingear.  Saganaga was kicking up a little, and some whitecaps were beginning to form.  They opted not to put on their gear..........Mistake Number 1.

The drenching in the towboat was brutal..............My full raingear (Cabela's Rainy River Goretex) worked like a dream......but I still managed to get a little wet.  Dan and Craig.........well...........lets just say the end of trip shower came a little early for them.  Craig and Dan both deny ever hearing me tell them to put on their raingear.

The towboats dropped us at Hook Island.  We met a couple of guys who hadn't caught a smallmouth the entire trip.........I'm reminded once again that we were too late....In prior years, we have visited the BWCA and Quetico the first full week of June...........not the second.  

The paddle to the ranger station proved to be pretty hairy, and we immediately realized that we were going to be windbound.  Cache Bay was really kicking' butt with whitecaps and wind.  It was nearly impossible to reach the ranger station.  Once we did reach the station, Janice (the Cache Bay Ranger), was nice enough to change our entry point to Knife Lake instead of Fran.  

We started off towards our new entry point.  At first bay, we decided to make camp.  It was already 2:30PM, and we figured it would take at least 2-3 hours to get from First bay to Monument Portage.  From there, we would still have a few miles of paddling before reaching our destination entry point.  Besides........everyone was ready to start fishing.

We setup camp quickly.......ate some lunch, and then went fishing.   We managed to catch some fish using our standby lures, but not many.......Once again, I hear from the peanut gallery............"Were LATE".

Gadgetman and I, and Dan and Craig fished Second Bay, while Alan and Josh fished Third Bay.  Like I said earlier, we did manage to catch fish, but not like in the past years.  After fishing Second Bay, Gadgetman and I headed to Swamp Lake and fished there for a while.  After an hour in Swamp Lake without very much luck, we decided to fish Third Bay, and then head back to camp.  At camp, we would decide on the route we would take for the remainder of the trip.


This page was last updated on: December 23, 2022