Minnesota Fishing Trip - 2018

The group decided to do another Minnesota fishing trip but this time, instead of portaging into the boundry waters, we decided to take our boats and fish Lake Winnibigoshish.  Lake Winnie, as it is commonly called, is located in north central Minnesota near the town of Deer River.  Winnibigoshish means "dirty" water in Objibwe (the local native American tribe) but it is anything but dirty.  The water is crystal clear and you can see the bottom in most places.  Interestingly, it is an impoundment which dams up the Mississippi River whose start is Lake Itasca, about 60 miles to the west.

There were five in our group, only two of which went on the canoe trip last year.  R.B. and I had made that trip but we were looking forward to a somewhat safer, less stressful time.  R.B.'s friend since high school, Ronnie, was the third member of our team and he and R.B. supplied the boats.The fourth member was Clint, Ronnie's cousin, who lives in the Oklahoma City area.  Clint's friend, Denton, rounded out the group.

R.B. and I left Mannford about 8 am on Thursday, June 7, and the other three guys left Morrison about the same time.  The plan was to meet in Owatonna, Minnesota, go to Cabela's, for last minute items, then spend the night and caravan to Lake Winnie on Friday.  We were running late, however, and didn't get to Cabela's until the next morning.  We then drove the remaining 4 1/2 hours to our cabin at the Northland Lodge at the lake.

We fished hard Friday and caught a few walleyes, northerns, and largemouth bass but not a large number.  Saturday was a repeat of Friday with a few fish caught but not a lot.  Sunday was a rainout and we fished Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

All in all we caught six species of fish: walleyes, northerns, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rock bass, and yellow perch.  Most of the bass and northerns were caught on artificial lures, the walleyes and yellow perch were caught on live bait.  Unlike in Oklahoma, leeches are a popular bait up there and I really like to fish them because they are extremely hardy and stay on the hook good.

Thursday morning the 14th, we got up early and headed for Oklahoma.  We drove all day and got back to Mannford about 9 pm.  That was a long haul!

My measure of a good trip is being able to say the next day that you would do it again.  I could say that about this trip although I would do a few things differently next time.  Certainly I would drink less whiskey - the five of us drank four gallons in six days!  I'm just beginning to recuperate.

Fishing in the Boundry Waters

My friend, R.B., and I were planning our next epic adventure, a fishing trip to Lake Winnebigoshish  in Minnesota, when it dawned on me that I hadn't documented our trip last year.  It was during that period when I couldn't seem to ever find time to write.  So here is the story.

In early 2017, R.B. asked me if I wanted to go on a fishing trip with him and three other guys.  They were planning to fish the boundary waters in northern Minnesota.  I said, "Sure!" so we began planning the trip.  Planning, of course, involved several meetings at restaurants for food and drink.

On the appointed day, Saturday, June 10, 2017, we left Tulsa in my motor home.  The five people going were R.B., his son, Bobby, James, Travis, and myself.  The first night we drove to Owatonna, Minnesota, a distance of about 670 miles, and stayed in the parking lot of a Cabela's store there.  Of course, we went into the store and spent a boat load of money on fishing and camping gear.  The next morning, we left early and drove on to Ely, Minnesota, another 300 miles.

When we arrived in Ely, we met the outfitter that R.B. had contacted for gear and made plans to begin our canoe trip the next morning.  We spent that night, our second night out, in the motor home.  We got up early the next morning, Monday, and found a wonderful place in Ely to eat breakfast.  After filling our bellies with biscuits and gravy, we went back to the outfitter's place where we had parked the motor home and began to unload our gear.  As is usual, we had way more "stuff" than we needed and left some of it there.

Unloading our Gear in Ely

The outfitter dropped us off at a landing on Fall Lake about six miles northeast of Ely.  We loaded our canoes and began our journey.  I hadn't been in a canoe in about 60 years so it took a little while to get comfortable!  Our canoe trip took about five hours and included two portages of a quarter mile each.  We went from Fall Lake to Newton Lake and then into Pipestone Bay.  Once on Pipestone, you could, if you so desired, canoe into Canada.

Each portage involved dragging our canoe onto shore, unloading all the gear in them, hauling it all along with the canoe to the next lake, and then reloading everything back into the canoes.  These usually took about three round trips to get all our gear moved.

Bobby and Travis in the Canoe

By the time we got to our selected campsite, it was about four o'clock and we quickly got our camp set up.  We were the only humans on the little island in the middle of this lake and that made it kind of eerie!

For the next four days, we fished for walleye, pike, and smallmouth bass.  Most of our fishing was done from the bank, right in camp, because the weather wasn't good enough to spend much time fishing from the canoes.
.

Edd With a Smallmouth

Sleeping arrangements were hammocks strung between trees.  I was absolutely amazed at how well we slept and stayed dry in them.  On two of the nights, we had thunderstorms with lots of lightening and rain and I never got a drop of water in my hammock!  In the evenings, of course, we sat around the campfire, ate Nutter Butter cookies and drank copious quantities of whiskey.  We didn't catch a lot of fish but everyone caught some and everyone had a good time.

On Friday morning, June 16, we got up, fixed our breakfast over the campfire, and loaded the canoes for the trip back to our take out spot.  The wind was howling and we were all a little apprehensive about the trip.  As the morning progressed, the winds got stronger and stronger and we sure were glad to see the landing spot in sight.

By the time we got checked in with the outfitter and took a shower (which we all needed badly), we decided to load up the motor home and drive all the way home overnight.  We left Ely about 2 p.m. and, after a stop in Joplin for breakfast, arrived home about 8:30 Saturday morning.

I've been on several trips like this and, for most of them, the day I returned, I would say I would never go back.  That was not the case with this trip - when we go home I wold have turned around and done it again that day!

Vacation, 2013

I know that this is kind of like breaking out the vacation pictures and forcing everyone to look at them but our just-completed trip was a hoot and I want to tell you about it.

For the past several years, we have gone to Colorado to escape the summer heat but, for several reasons, we decided this year to go to Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The National Forest Service in Colorado has gotten "stinky" about camping in their campgrounds, to the point of making us decide to go somewhere else.

When we started talking about the U.P, our friends, Mary and Luther, indicated that they would like to go with us.  We decided to leave on July 17.  We got the motorhomes ready and prepared for the trip.  Our first stop was to be Wallace State Park in Missouri and that was the "kickoff" of our trip.

Our next stop was Clear Lake, Iowa.  For "rock and roll" fans, you know that this was the site of Buddy Holly's last concert before his death in a plane crash.  He, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson ("The Big Bopper", were killed when their plane left Clear Lake.  A side note is that Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup who were also members of the band but were not on the plane that crashed.  Many years later, we had the pleasure of meeting Tommy Allsup in Mannford; he was a friend of a good friend of ours, Faye Carroll.  We also toured the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa, and got to watch Winnebago motorhomes being made.

Our next stop was Minneapolis where we went to the largest shopping mall in the United States, Mall of America.  Luther and I weren't thrilled with it but Mary and Louise were.  We also paid a visit to the nearby IKEA store which is amazing.

The next stop was Duluth, Minnesota.  Although I had been there on business several times, I had never been impressed with the city.  Being on vacation was different, however.  We found a campground right on the water.  In fact, our motor home was backed up right to the water on the pier.

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing the parade of "tall ships" come through Duluth.  We were close enough to walk from our campground to the channel to see them.  These are mostly replicas of the sailing ships of the 1700's and 1800's.

From Duluth, we went to Grand Marais, Minnesota for a couple of days where we camped in wilderness area.  We took a side trip while there to Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Then we were off to Copper Harbor, Michigan, a peninsula in northern Michigan.  We spent four days there and the scenery was beautiful.

From Copper Harbor, we went to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for three days.  A highlight of our visit there was a boat tour through the Soo Locks and back through the Canadian side.  Once again, we were parked in an RV park right on the water.

After leaving the Soo, we went to St. Ignace, Michigan.  St. Ignace is a tourist town on the north end of the Mackinac Bridge and is a ferry ride away from Mackinac Island.  Mackinac Island is a famous tourist spot and is known for its lack of gasoline powered vehicles.  Everything on the island is "horse driven".  By the way, "Mackinac" is pronounced "Mackinaw" - I don't know why, it just is.

After we left St. Ignace, we spent a couple of days getting to Elkhart, Indiana.  Luther and Mary's motor home was made in Elkhart and we took a tour of their factory.  We also had some good Amish food to eat there!

After a couple more leisurely days of driving through Illinois and Missouri, we got back home on August 16. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation.  I must admit that Luther and I both did some minor body damage to our motor homes but all that can be fixed!

OK, I promise you I won't do any more of these vacation rambles until the next trip!