Journal 2000

Fishing has always been a lifetime ambition of mine. I happened to be talking to a friend across town one day and he told me about these smallmouth bass fishing trips he goes on up in northern Minnesota. He said that he goes to Ely, Minnesota and uses an outfitter and starts his canoe trips from there and goes out for about a week each trip. After speaking to him off and on over the next several years I finally got serious about it and pinned him down for the details. I called his outfitter, The Moose Bay Company, and booked a trip for June 8-13, 2000. Our party of 4 consisted of Andy Cameron, my twin brother Brian, my son Josh, and myself. Brian, Josh, and I drove up and picked up Andy at the airport in Ely. We arrived at The Moose Bay Company and met our outfitter, John Herrick. We received a warm welcome from him and his staff and their hospitality was outstanding. The next morning after a wonderful breakfast in the lodge, we loaded up the shuttle boat and headed up Moose Lake for a 20 minute tow to Prairie Portage Canadian Customs Station to get our permits and licenses. We then continued with a 40 minute tow to Back Bay where we were dropped off. After months of planning and anticipation, we were finally starting our wilderness trip. Andy quickly puts one of the packs on his back and throws the canoe over his head and starts down the path of our 70 rod portage. I load up myself and do likewise. We had to double portage and when I meet Andy on his way back he tells me that his legs are like a bowl of jello. Needless to say, Andy never carried a heavy pack on his back and portaged the canoe at the same time. We shoved off and headed up Basswood Lake. We portaged around Upper Basswood Falls as we headed down the Basswood River. To avoid the long Horse Trail Portage, we floated and portaged several times making our way past Wheelbarrow Falls and Lower Basswood Falls. We proceeded down Crooked Lake where we stopped to see the Indian pictographs on the steep rock cliffs. We headed into Moose Bay where we set up camp on the high campsite on the right that overlooks the lake. This is really a beautiful campsite. After setting up our tents and eating our thawed out steaks, we fished for the first time on our trip with limited success. Andy awoke during the night on a flattened air mattress that had sprung a leak. The next morning Andy landed the first significant fish, an 18 ¼ inch smallmouth on a white spinner bait that he had thrown against a windy bank. It was really a nice heavy fish. The rest of us caught several smallmouth and pike but nothing big. We broke camp and headed up the Tuck River to Robinson Lake. We camped on the second campsite on the left because the other sites were taken. That night I also awoke to a flattened air mattress. Since we did not bring repair kits, I slept on folded out life jackets the rest of the trip. Over the next few days we portaged into "No Name" and Nub Lake as well as into "No Name" and Tuck Lake. The portage into Nub Lake was very wet and muddy. Josh while portaging the canoe, got his boots stuck in the mud and had to get help to free himself. This portage was almost too much for Brian as it mentally and physically drained him. Anytime a decision had to be made on our trip it was decided by doing "rock, paper, scissors". Josh always represented our canoe and Andy represented the other. I don't believe Josh ever lost which often resulted in our canoe getting the choicest bank to fish down a lake. The goal for each of us was to catch a 20 inch smallmouth and earn entry into our outfitters "20 Inch Club" but we all came up a bit short. Each of us caught at least one 19 ½ inch smallmouth and everything shorter. Mother Nature brought our share of rain which dampened our spirits at times. Josh ran out of dry socks and had to try to dry a pair over the campfire. On day five we broke camp and headed back the way we came in. We spent the last night near Wheelbarrow Falls. On day six we proceeded up the Basswood River into Basswood Lake where we were met by a strong headwind and whitecaps. We paddled for a solid hour into that headwind before we could get out of the wind. It was very challenging physically. We met our outfitter as scheduled at Back Bay for our tow back to The Moose Bay Company. We got our much needed hot showers and had a wonderful dinner in the lodge. We spent the night in his cabin and headed out the next day. We dropped Andy off at the Duluth airport for him to fly back. We headed south and shortly thereafter I had a beep on my cell phone. Luckily, we had not gone far as it was Andy calling because the airport was fogged in and he needed a ride to the Minneapolis airport. We circled back around and picked him up and dropped him off in Minneapolis before heading back to Arkansas. During our trip we portaged a total of 20 times during the 6 day trip. Most times we had to double portage. We had one meal of smaller fish and all other fish were released. We saw moose, deer, otters, beavers, fishers, and eagles. We had a great trip.