Wednesday, July 18, 2007

A short 30 rod portage and we were on the fabled waters of Kawnipi. We decided to troll as we paddled North. On both shores there were thousands of acres of new growth - this area had literally been burned to the ground in the 1995 Bird Lake Fire. Thirteen years later the ashes now lent support and nutrients to hundreds of millions of pines, their light green branches swaying in the light breeze this cool and sunny Quetico day. Several peaceful miles slipped by - in the area of Atkins Bay we passed over a shallows between and island and the shore. This was textbook perfect fishing structure - (besides I noted large fish darting away into deeper, darker waters.) I suggested that we enjoy the day and take an early morning fishing break.

The next two hours will never be forgotten by this merry band of trekkers. The total take was 31 Northerns and numerous Walleyes (including one at 24 and one at 28 inches). The Southern whoops and yells echoed off the low hills on either side of us.

I briefly adopted and trained a largish Northern who would follow my lure up to the boat, but never strike even as I would tantalizingly pass the spinner bait inches in front of his nose. When I would pull the lure out to recast it, this Northern would take off like a Golden Retriever chasing a tennis ball. Sure enough a minute or so later he was back after following the lure back to the canoe.

We finally tired of the hunt - Logan had caught another 30" Pike on a Fly (using a steel leader) and gotten it up to the boat where it spat out the hook. This counts as a catch in my book!

We paddled on to the crossroads on Kawnipi and found a great campsite just down from the Pictographs. We cleaned the Walleyes and attracted the attention of a large and quite assertive seagull who rather impatiently waited for three full Walleye carcasses after Kurt's knifework.

Not in my book - Seagulls are not native, and these scavengers have been known to injure native species like the Loons. I insist that fish remains are taken out to dark water and dumped - not left for the scavangers.

Man, was this bird upset! He swooped very, very, very close to my head as I upended the oversized Ziploc we'd used for the remains, and remained stationed on the point frankly looking quite put out as we enjoyed our Walleye feast. (Note, the Quetico Rangers have finally come back around to my point of view and now suggest this 'dark water' approach to all campers. I never did think that burying the remains on shore made any sense - as if a bear couldn't smell rotting fish 6" below the surface!)

I did make a small peace offering to the gull of a small boned filet - it was accepted but there was no noticeable attitude improvement on the part of our resident Gull who continued to act like a sullen teenager.

Twelve miles, one portage and a great Kawnipi day.