Boundary Waters/Quetico Spring Trip for 2002

June 15th-23rd, 2002
Day 2:Sunday, June 16th, 2002Fishing Cache Bay


Saturday morning, we were greeted with great weather.  It was a little overcast to start out, but turned into a GREAT day.  We had decided yesterday to hit Cache Bay early in the morning, visit the pictographs, and of course, fish our "record-setting" magic cove.  Gadgetman and I started fishing some of the water we had fished last year.  Alan and Josh took the other side of the cove.  Dan and Craig decided to head towards the end of the inlet, and looked for the pictographs.  

The fishing was pretty good........we managed to catch a few smallies, and a couple decent Northerns.  Once we made it to the end of the cove where the pictographs are, we met up with Dan and Craig.  Gadgetman and I started fishing the shallow water in the back of the cove.  We immediately started catching smallies.  Nothing big.....the largest caught back here was only 3.5lbs.  We did manage to catch about 25-30 smallies in this cove.

On every cast, we caught a fish.  In some cases, we caught both the male and female from the nest...............These fish were coming up......every one of the females were full of eggs.  Water temps were only in the low 50's with the main body of Cache Bay being in the mid 40's.

Dan and Craig were not having much luck, so Gadgetman and I give them a few pointers, and showed them the techniques we were using to catch fish.  In return, Dan pointed out where the pictographs were located.  Last year Gadgetman and I tried to locate the pictographs, but failed.  This year, I really wanted to see them, and made a point to look for them.  

We decided to meet at the First Bay campsite by 1:00PM.  From there, we would head down to monument portage, and hit Cypress Lake.  Gadgetman and I also wanted to try Swamp Lake once again.

After viewing the pictographs, Gadgetman and I decided to head back to camp.  On the way back, we trolled #7 rapalas, trying to catch a laker or a walleye.  Gadgetman's fishing pole bent over, and the reel started screaming...........I thought we was hung up on the rocks, but it was fighting back.  Whatever was on the other end, it was big.  Gadgetman worked the fish for a few minutes.  Finally, when it was landed, neither of us knew what it was.  It looked like a sucker, and that is what I called it.  Since it was a trash fish, we let the dang thing go, and headed back to camp.  At camp, I broke out the fishing guide, and determined that this fish was a whitefish.  We had never caught whitefish before, so this was a milestone........another species to add to the list.

After reaching camp, we had yet another change of plans...........this would be the first rearing of the head of that ugly monster..................."Group Dynamics".........Although everyone seemed to get along pretty good, we couldn't seem to come up with a gameplan when it was necessary.  Dan and Craig were along for the ride.......they had not been here before, and didn't know what to expect.  

Our Goal for the day was to reach Fran Lake.  Fran was our original plan, and we had already blown 1 ½ days screwing around in water we had already explored 5 years in a row.  I wanted something different, and I didn't want to screw around any longer.  Fran would be our destination.
To get to Fran from First Bay, you basically have two options........Saganaga, Swamp, Cypress, Jasper, Lily Pad, Slate, and then finally, Fran.....or Cache Bay, Saganagons, Slate, Fran.  Option 2 seems like the best choice, but we had changed our entry point to Knife Lake the day before.  Here is where the problems started......Legally, could we cross Cache Bay and head to Fran when we had changed our entry point, or did we have to go the Monument Portage route.

By this time, Cache Bay was kicking up again, and whitecaps were forming.  The wind was out of the north, and seemed to be blowing straight down Cache Bay.  Either way we chose, we would be fighting the wind, and it would be a tough paddle.  I personally thought we would never make it going the Monument Portage route, and we would be stuck somewhere in between, spending yet another day on lakes we had visited on the past 4 trips to the BWCA and Quetico.

We chose the Cache Bay/Silver Falls option.  We also decided the best paddling route would require us to hug the east shore of Cache Bay.  

After  about 2 hours of paddling, we noticed a boat approaching quickly.  We were about ¾ the way across Cache Bay.  It was Janice, and she didn't look too happy.  She told us that we were going in the wrong way.  I honestly thought that after day 1 in the park, you could go basically wherever you wanted.  I guess this is incorrect.  We discussed this for a few minutes......she informed me that she should make us go the other way.  After a few more minutes of discussion, she allowed us to continue on via the Silver Falls Route.  I'm still not sure on the rules, but will try to keep to our plans in the future.

The rest of the paddle to Fran was uneventful.  We made pretty good time over Silver Falls.  Most of the guys had never been here before, so we stopped and took pictures of the falls.  We also pointed out the trickle of water coming down the falls that nearly killed Gadgetman and I last year.

After the other guys had a real good laugh........we continued on our way to Fran Lake.  By this time, is was nearing 5:00PM.   The paddling and portaging left were minimal.  We made it to Fran Lake by 7:00PM.  To our amazement, the first island site on Fran was open.  We setup camp, took care of some other stuff and started getting ready for dinner.  Alan and Josh decided to eat later, and headed out on the lake for some fishing action.  

We decided this would be our Base Camp for the remainder of the week.  Yet another change of plans from the original gameplan.  

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