Springtime fishing adventures

It’s springtime in Northwest Montana when a young man’s attention turns to fishing or at least something like that! So let me share one of my favorite spring time fishing adventures with you.

The year was 1959, I was a junior at the University of Minnesota. My high school friends and I had taken several summer fishing and canoeing trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Northern Minnesota and into the adjacent Quetico Provinial Park in Canada. This area is widely known as the finest canoe country in the world. It includes thousands of lakes connected by streams and canoe portage trails. It is roadless country and air travel is banned. Access is strictly by canoe, but does include some portaging between lakes. Our previous summer trips included some great fishing for walleyes and northern pike. Only occasionally did we catch prized lake trout because they lived in deep cool water making them difficult to catch.

So, in the spring of 1959, we decided to take a very early canoe trip to seek the elusive lake trout when they were rumored to be easy to catch in shallow cold lake water shortly after ice-out. So, we drove to Ely, Minnesota to rent a canoe and head into the wilderness in search of lake trout. The crew included myself, my high school buddy, Don Rau, and my younger brother John.

Both Don and I owned 17-foot canvas covered canoes, but we decided to rent an 18-foot aluminum canoe since there would be three of us in the canoe. The canoe outfitter was Bill Rom. We were his first clients that early spring. He asked if we had life jackets. We said no. So Rom tossed in three life jackets without any charge. He was much wiser than us young guys. We then drove out to Moose Lake to start our canoe trip. Three lakes later, we entered Canada via Prairie Portage and Canadian Customs. We were early enough in the season, so the customs station was not open. So, we just canoed past and entered Canada without a permit or fishing license.

For the next three days we leisurely canoed north into Canada before reaching our destination lake, Kahshanptwi Lake. Fishing was lousy. I think the problem was we were accustomed to catching walleyes and northern pike in warmer summer waters when those fish were in shallow water. In early spring they were probably deeper in the water column, where we didn’t fish.

After three days of lousy fishing, we decided to canoe several miles to the north end of Kahshanptwi Lake where there was a deep hole where Don had caught lots of walleyes the summer before. Upon arrival at the north end of the lake, there were only two good fishing spots, which Don and I quickly claimed. My brother John took his rod and headed down the portage trail to the next lake, Keefer Lake. A few minutes later John comes racing back up the portage trail with a still wiggling lake trout. His first cast into Keefer Lake resulted in that lake trout.

Don and I followed John back down the portage trail to Keefer Lake. A nice creek drained Kahshanptwi Lake into Keefer Lake. That creek had dug a nice deep hole in Keefer Lake that was stacked deep with lake trout.

During the next hour or two, all three of us had lake trout on our lines at the same time. Fishing was fantastic. We soon had our limits of lake trout covering the bottom of the canoe. Back at camp, during our exploration the day before, we found that snow melt had run into cracks in the cliffs behind camp and formed lots of clear ice. We used our axe to level an ice shelf for our fish and covered our fish with chipped ice. A perfect natural ice chest.

We wanted to take our fish home. So, we reasoned that we could get back to our car in just one long day of canoeing. We converted our heavy-duty food pack into a fish pack filled with fish and chipped ice. The next day, before daylight, we fixed a quick breakfast and dumped all of our extra food, mostly canned goods, into the lake. By early afternoon, we were right on schedule, reaching the North Bay of Basswood Lake. The wind was howling and giant waves made canoeing not advisable. So, we sat there for several hours, very frustrated. About dusk the wind died down, so we raced across North Bay to the portage into Burke Lake. By then it was pitch black, so we just rolled out our sleeping bags and crawled in without any dinner.

Very early the next morning we portaged into Burke Lake, canoed across Burke Lake and across another portage to North Bay of Basswood Lake. By then, the wind was howling again. We couldn’t canoe across North Bay. After sitting for several hours, we decided to portage along the rocky shoreline until we got behind a small point of land that gave us some shelter from the wind. This allowed us to canoe to Prairie Portage by dark. It was snowing. So, we canoed the last three lakes in the dark and snowfall. Don and I were paddling, so we stayed warm. Brother John sat in the middle of the canoe and got very cold. I could hear his teeth chattering. He said, “I will never go canoeing with you guys again!” We finally reached our car and its warm heater. Before we got back to Ely, we were already planning our next canoe trip.

After a very needed and hearty dinner in Ely, we were ready for some sleep. We didn’t have money for a motel, so Don said he had heard you could possibly sleep in the jail. So, we went to the city jail and a very kind jailer unlocked a cell so we could sleep on the concrete floor. The next morning, we headed home.

This was an adventuresome fishing trip for three young guys. We had some great fishing, learned some lessons about wilderness survival and made memories for a lifetime. My brother John and Don have now gone to the great fishing lake in the sky. Thanks for letting me document this great spring fishing adventure.