One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

[TTTBone]

So check it out my brethren.

I likes to do me some fishing, and why not?

Great way to unwind, forget your troubles (and we all have our lot), and deflate that balloon of stress that's been creeping up your spinal column and infiltrating your brain like some tropical viral infection.

So, me, I do a trip up to the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters Wilderness Area in northern Minnesota every year.

This year we decided not to camp in the canoe only Boundary Waters, but rather to stay at a cabin along the Gunflint Trail.
We was seriously stressed, and a week of packing in and paddling, portaging, fighting plauges of mosquitos and black flies was not fitting the bill.
Plus everyone knows feeze-dried pack meals suck.

Anyhow, the place we stayed was awesome. We saw plenty of wildlife (7 Moose, untold number of Loons, Beavers and Bald eagles, and a fox and an otter hanging out down by the wateredge of our cabin). This was cool.

Now the fishing. It was awsome, we caught plenty of big Smallmouth Bass, Norther Pike, and Rainbow Trout hopping around on the lakes along the trail.
But nothing compares to our last day up.

We hired a guide for a day to take us out on Saganaga Lake at the top of the trail.
Day started slow, as we fished for Lake Trout, but couldn't find a bite. I was starting to question the skills of our scraggly, sun-baked guide, Roger.
We then decided to get off the big part of the lake, as 30 mph wind gusts were coming up.

Now it got fun.
In a three hour period in a single area we picked up four walleye that were 30-31 inches (ten to eleven lbs).
Folks, those are all once in a lifetime trophy fish.
We released 'em all.

We also caught another four fish ranging from 24-27 inches, which anyone one of would have made a great day on the water.
We kept two of those "smaller" four fish, and then went to another spot where we limited out on "eating-size" fish (19 inch and under).
You really couldn't hope for a better day of walleye fishing.
All hail guide Roger the sun-bleached fishing God.

So yeah, it was a good trip.

We found out later that our guide Roger is somewhat of a living legend when it comes to guiding and commercial fishing. He's guided on Saganaga for 30+ years now, and commercial fishes in Florida during the winter months. In both places he's regarded as just about the best there is. We just stumbled onto him as he had a cancellation, and we were looking for a guide on short notice. Dumb luck. About the nicest guy you could hope to meet, and his fishing knowledge is boundless. Plus, the guy did two tours with Army Special Forces in Vietnam, and never recieved as much as a scratch.
"I'm a lucky guy, always have been."

We rode his luck and knowledge that day, worked out pretty well.

[mutantseabass]

Sounds like a great trip I will applaud you for releasing the larger Walleyes. It will give another fisherman a thrill to catch one of those bad boys! I love to fish there is nothing more relaxing in the world to me. I practice catch and release with every fish i catch though.

[moonhead]

my girlfriend's dad taught me how to fly fish last year in jackson hole, wyoming. i won't fish any other way now.

[TTTBone]

Yep, moonhead, flyfishing's a blast.
Pretty much how we fished until we hired the guide for Lake Trout and Walleye fishing.
Flyfishing is how we caught the majority of our smallmouth bass and all of the rainbow trout up there. Nothing more fun than seeing those fish blow-up the water on your popper or fly. We had a great four days doing that.

But you can't flyfish for every species.
Kind of why we hired a guide to put us on some Lake trout and Walleye. He did us right.
All types of fishing are goodstuff, though.

[Lushcrush]

Go TTT ... sounds like some real polebenders. Nothing like getting in some nice fish. And since you let the big ones go, you can always go back and get them again.
How about those moose? I've never seen one but I think you told a story from your last trip about seeing one swimming or something? Is that right? Whats up with the moose you saw this time? Everybody likes a good moose story ...

[moonhead]

anyone ever had to carry bear mase?

[jayday]

The 'Cuna's going pro yo

[Omaha Red Sox]

I'm not much of a fisherman myself, though my wife and quite a few of my buddies love it. I'll cast out a couple times, but, for the most part, I just partake in the conversation and beer.

[TTTBone]

Whats up with the moose you saw this time? Everybody likes a good moose story ...

Yeah, the Moose were cool. Enormous beasts!
The morning after we got up there I woke up early (6am) and decided to take the boat out for a little top-water bassin' around the bay while all the rookies who couldn't handle the previous nights boozin' slept. I did alright, catching three bass and a nothern.
I was fishing a reed bed when a BIG female moose and her calf strode out of the woods and into the reed bed about 30 yds. away from me.
Too cool.
I just chilled and watched them for about five minues as they slowly made their away across the reed flat, into the deeper water, and then swam about 200 yds. to the far shore.
Sure put a big smile on my face.
I'll tell you what, moose can swim like they have a trolling motor strapped on their ass.
Saw the same pair swim back the exact opposite route two days later. The really amusing thing about it was the calf moose (about the size of a small horse) kept it's snout firmly planted on momma's ass for both the swims. I don't know how else to describe it, except to say it was cute as hell.
The rest of the Moose we saw crossing the road heading up the trail. Two other pairs of cows and calfs, and on the last day, a lone gigantic Bull moose running along the road for 30 yds or so.
Man, talk about a car wrecker. 1,200 lbs about six feet off the ground.

And, moonhead, yeah, I carried Bear Mace the first time I spent a week in the Boundary Waters. But it's not really neccesary, black bear attacks are rare at best and usually a result of stupidity (i.e. food in tents or left around the campsite). Haven't carried it since, although I think I still have some packed up somewhere.
However, if I were ever to get into Grizzly or Brown Bear territory, I'd be digging it out.