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Here is the report for the week of Aug 4-11, 2001. It was certainly HOT for most of the week. We heard Sudbury hit a record 102 degrees on Tuesday, Aug 7th. Cooled down late Thursday and Friday as a huge storm came blowing through Thursday about 5:00 PM (learned later that a small tornado was seen in Espanola). Despite the hot weather and bright blue skies for the majority of the week, I would classify the fishing on a scale of 1 to 10 as a 7, maybe 8. Bassoon was especially productive with some quality smallmouth in the 14-18 inch range, good numbers also. Some real nice smallmouths off Bear Lake as well, with 18 inches the best. Burnt Cabin was absolutely fantastic - our first party of three caught 108 bass in 5 hours of fishing!! The second party of four, who stayed all night, had similar results - almost a fish every cast!! Lots of action all day until our thumbs got raw from landing bass (some wrapped thumbs with duct tape). Good quality with our largest bein! g a beautiful, fat 21 incher. We didn't have a scale with us but I would estimate that fish was close to 6 pounds because of the huge girth. Many others in the 2-3 pound range. Billy, Roundotter and Cranberry were not very productive this trip. Didn't get to VanWinkle, Cat, Howry, or Gem. And didn't fish Stoney. Walleye fishing was slow, as usual, but we managed 8 for the week with a nice 24 inch, 5 pounder on the last night ( we released all but 3 of the walleyes, the 5 pounder, of course, went back). Northern pike were not abundant, but we really don't fish for them, although we had several bite-offs while bass fishing. However, did get a nice, beautifully marked one on Bassoon that weighed just over 5 pounds. All in all a good week and we appreciate being able to use Bill Drane's canoes on Stoney for our Burnt Cabin trip. Did have some difficulty with the Custer group, staying in BLWC, using the Lang Lake boats. We also found them in the canoes on Stoney when we had !
already reserved their use with the BLWC team (apparently they were not checking the sign-up board, assuming no one other than there group was hitting the outer lakes). Was not a big issue as they turned the canoes over to us without a fuss. The HOT weather made the 15 cases of beer taste great and we spent a lot of time in the lake cooling off. Except for walleyes (nightcrawlers), we exclusively used artificial baits. Jigs with 4" plastic grubs were good on the smallmouth, as were small white spinnerbaits and small rubber jigs tipped with plastic crawdad imitators. The largemouth on Burnt hit anything and everything, with Zara Spooks, spinnerbaits, plastic worms and Plow Jockeys (natural color) doing most of the work and of course my ole reliable black and blue jig with a plastic black and blue pork chunk trailer.
The highlight of the week was seeing a young wolf at the campsite on Little Lake on the Hill. We had been fishing in the morning and came in to the camp site to have lunch. We docked the boat and as I was approaching the camp site I noticed a pair of ears and head laying in a shallow grass depression. I thought at first, because of the distance, it was a fox. But as I approached closer, it realized I was there and stood up. Much to my surprise and delight it was no fox, but a young charcoal gray wolf!!!! He/she stood there for several seconds looking at us before slowing trotting off into the bush. I found a filleted fish carcass at the area he/she was lying in. The fish was probably remains of a previous party (Borchelt group) who may have camped there. It was puzzling that the wolf didn't take off when he/she heard us docking the boat, but I'm glad it didn't. What an awesome experience!! Our group that camped at Burnt Cabin heard the wolves howling and barking d! uring the night/morning. Saw a cow and calf moose on the Billy portage and a bear cub swimming to shore on the ride out Saturday morning. But the weather was so hot that wildlife was not very active. Thanks again to our friends in the Borchelt party for: (1) the great steak dinner Friday night, (2) the t-shirts and, (3) leaving some fish in the lakes for us. On a personal note, it was good to see all my old friends in the Borchelt party and trade stories. It had been awhile since we have connected. And thanks to Garland for the "beverage", quite tasty. I'm sure Bundi enjoyed it also, because he was in rare form on Hot Dog Island Friday night.
Well, that's about it friends. Until next year, tight lines and happy landings.
Jeff