Boundary Waters/Quetico Spring Trip for 2002

June 15th-23rd, 2002
Day 4:Tuesday, June 18th, 2002Other Man Lake

Since the fishing on Fran was subpar, and the fishing on Slate was only marginal, we decided to head for "greener pastures".  From earlier trip reports, and from trip reports from another fishing buddy from last year, it was decided that Other Man Lake would be the target for today.  The plan was to "bust a can", and get to Other Man Lake while the morning bite was still on.  This would be a day trip, with very limited supplies, and no additional gear.  Daypack and fishing gear.......that would be all that was taken.

Dan and Craig once again opted to sleep in.

Breakfast this morning would be a quick.........Cocoa and Oatmeal.  10 Minutes later, we were on the water.

We started out at 5:00am.  We portaged into "noname lake".  On this noname lake, Gadgetman and I fished quickly for Northerns...........We did manage to catch a few northerns on the lake, but all were hammerheads.  Nothing great, but then again, they were fish.  It was determined that this lake did not hold any smallies.  After about 15 minutes, we headed to Bell Lake.  

On Bell Lake, we started catching some HUGE northerns.  This lake held some monster northerns, and they were hungry.  Gadgetman stayed with the magic bait, and I tied on a ¼ oz titanium spinnerbait..  With the titanium spinnerbait, I managed to boat 10-20 northerns.  Some were over 5lbs.  Gadgetman caught one that was 9lb.   We fished Bell for about 1 ½ hours.  By this time, the sun was getting pretty warm.  It was going to be yet another bluebird day.  Smallie fishing would be nearly impossible.  We spent about 2 hours on Bell Lake.

From Bell Lake, we portaged into Bit Lake.  Bit Lake was really shallow, and held only a few small northerns.  We quickly headed to another "noname" lake between Bit and Other Man.  This "noname" lake also held some huge northerns, but there were not smallies.  We fished this noname lake for about 2 hours, landing some of the largest northern pike I have ever caught.  We were getting worn out on these fish.  I don't mind catching pike......especially when they're big.  These fish were definitely big.  After a few hours, we decided it was time to head to Other Man Lake.  The portages for these lakes were really not that bad.  The 4 rod portage between Bell and Bit....the unnamed lake was only 4 rods, but it was straight up.  The longest portage was the 74 rod portage into Bell from Fran Lake. 

From this "noname" lake we took the 39 rod portage into OtherMan.  By this time, it was lunch time.  We had spent nearly 7 hours getting here.  Now remember, most of this time was due to "fishing on the way in".  This would lead to yet another issue involving that elusive monster........."Group Dynamics". 

I have always tried to have an agenda, and to try to follow it as much as possible.  If you're planning on being on Lake X by 8:00am, then work your butt off to get there.  This means, "leave the freaking' fishing pole alone until you get there".  This would be a constant problem for me on this entire trip.  Maybe it's just me, but I wanted to spend the quality time for fishing on Other Man Lake.  Not these other small mud puddles.  Granted, we did manage to catch some HUGE northerns.......larger than I have ever caught before, but this was not the AGENDA.

Now, we were on Other Man Lake, it was hot, the sun was up, and it was Noon.  Everyone knows that you're past the prime time for smallmouth fishing.  The wind was whipping pretty well by now, and Other Man was beginning to whitecap.  We decided to break for lunch, and then start fishing.  At this point.........that ugly monster showed up again.  The other 3 guys started talking about fishing this lake hard.......until dark, and then camping here under the stars for the night.  Now remember.......we only have our fishing gear, rain gear, lunch and two canoes.  Nothing ELSE. These guys were completely serious about staying the night.  We discussed this for about 30 minutes before I finally refused and told my partner that if that was the plan........"We're freaking' leaving..........RIGHT NOW".  I was not about to stay out there.......PERIOD.  Gadgetman still tried to convince me that this was a good idea.  He knew that I had 2 mylar emergency blankets, and some duct tape in my daypack.  He figured we could put the two canoes together, prop them up somehow, and tape the blankets to the top to create a shelter.  Yes, that would have worked, but I WAS NOT DOING IT................cooler heads prevailed.........my blood pressure dropped back to normal, and we started fishing.  I was so honked off at the other guys; I didn't even want to fish.

Gadgetman and Josh wanted to fish another area of the lake, so Alan and I went in one canoe to the Southwest tip, while Josh and Gadgetman fished near the Northeast portion.  The wind was blowing out of the west, so the wind would push us back to the portage.  Alan and I fished this lake for 4 hours, catching mostly small smallmouth bass.  Most of these fish were only 10-12 inches in size.  Alan kicked my butt on the fish, but he was catching mostly smaller fish.  I only caught 10 or 15 fish, but all my fish were larger, with some being near 3lbs.

By the time we met up with the other two guys, it was nearly 6:00PM.  We decided it was time to head back and that it would take at least 3 hours to get back to camp.

We made it back to camp in 2 hours..........pretty good.

A quick bath, quicker dinner, and off to bed.................

Tomorrow will be nearly as hard, with a trip to Jasper Lake................will the fishing be as good as 2 years ago.........Stay Tuned............


This page was last updated on: December 23, 2022