Bluegills and U-boats in Jasper Lake

Using what whatever snow is left in the yard to get the Skidoo to the water, I drove out on the ice on Jasper Lake  on March 16 at 1:30 PM to set up a pup-up shelter for fishing.  It was warm out at about 40 degrees but like every other March, it was windy.   Blowing from the south, then the north, we ended up tying the 6 x 8 pop-up off from each end to my Skidoo and my dad's 4-wheeler.  We were 100 yards off the beach of Northwind Lodge.

We made use of pre-drilled holes from the day before when we went fishing with Dave Oliver and Paul Haraldson, so setting up was quick.  We got inside the tent along with Delilah and began paying homage to the gods of bluegills by staring down the hole.  Boy, talk about getting a sore upper back and neck after doing that for 4 hours straight.

We dropped down various jigs a sparkly little spinners and they began to come in.  There were fewer today, but they were running bigger.  Nice sized, fillet-able fish swimming 5 to 7 feet below.  Today's visibility was not as good as yesterday and we can never understand why. 

Conditions were about the same with a partly cloudy day, but nonetheless, the sunnies below were bigger and a bit more picky.  All of a sudden, a 5 lb northern pick glided across in the shallow depths below.  The sunnies blew the popstand at that point and then some really nice sized largemouth bass came in for a look.  Even though the sunnies are good sized, those bass come in and they are huge.  2.5 to 4  pounders stopping in to see if they want that tiny #14 tungsten jig with a little bit of plastic on the hook.  It gets your adrenalin flowing because these are really nice fish. But nope, they swam by. After all that fish activity going by, it takes the bluegills about 30 minutes to come back after the head bluegill declares the coast to be clear.

I have 5 rods on the ice floor of our living room on the lake.  Each is rigged with a different jig & different plastics.  Most of the stuff I use is tungsten.  When the school is passing through, one must keep their interest for them to stick around.  So, if they are slow moving to one lure, crank up fast and drop another.  Must have been the air-pressure, but they were only moderately interested in what we were offering.  There was my dad setting the hook and saying "aarrggh!" and and me doing the same while declaring  "dang it!".  The fish below would suck in a jig completely. To hook them requires an immediate hookset.  You're like a coiled spring with a trip wire.  Trouble is that inexplicably, you can set the hook and miss them time and again despite their having inhaled the entire jig.  We call it "flipping them"  when we set a hook and it pulls them up and they flip a sideways somersault and swim away dazed but unharmed.  To avoid frequent flipping, we tried letting them take it for one second and they spit it out in slightly less than one second.  Their little bluegill tongues must quickly identify plastic.  We finally moved to tungsten bead head flies made by Cortland with no plastic and caught a few, flipped a few more.

Then, in a blast of sunfish panic, those slow-moving fish dispersed in all directions like spokes on a bicycle wheel.  Big northern coming through like a German U-boat on the hunt.  The bluegills beneath his level could hear the "ping" as the big green U-boat glided methodically overhead.  To hide, they descended deeper & deeper, closer to the bottom, holding their breath, beads of sweat rolling off their gill covers.  Minutes changed to hours as that big predator swam between them and the two faces staring down the holes in the ice above watching and waiting.  And waiting. And waiting.

Dang northern scared everybody off.  We sat for another 30 minutes with 5 bluegills on the ice and nobody was returning back to that spot.  My dad and I finally gave up.  We knocked down the tent, loaded the sled and cranked up our machines and headed home.   Had we caught every fish we saw including some very large perch, we'd have had fish laying all over the ice.  There certainly is no shortage of fish in Jasper.  Keeping them on the hook is the tricky part.

Another Fall Day on Jasper Lake at Northwind Lodge

Now, that global warming has officially set in on northeastern Minnesota, we are dressing appropriately and still getting out on the water to nail some lunkers.  This is Connie Wegisin from Ohio with her northern she caught yesterday.  That was a particularly chunky monkey she brought into the boat.

The weeds in the lake this year are unlike anything I've ever seen before.  It's weird how some years we have no weeds and think the rusty crayfish have moved in and killed them all.  Other years we have normal weeds, and this year we have weeds up the wazoo.  And yet, my garden croaked and was a waste of  $28...  The brush this year is thicker than peasoup and the growing season was ridiculously short for everything.

As a result of the thick weeds in the lake, the Wegisins were casting topwater plugs because even the weedless are hard to do right now.  Red and white is hot and I think Connie was using a Spook or something similar - Tom couldn't remember the name.  Anyway, the haukies are pounding red and white and Connie caught one of these:

So, if you were staying at Northwind Lodge right now, not only would be enjoying cool weather, but you could be taking advantage of the serious northerns rising from the cover of cabbage weeds to attack easy targets twitching on top.  I don't want to rub it in.  Oh, what the heck; yes I do...

Nice northern pike, Connie!

They put it back in the lake, too!

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Wilderness Solitude at a Wilderness Resort

One of our cabin guests just came in to say the reason for he and his wife come here to stay is because when he sits out on his cabin deck looking out at the lake, all he hears are loons calling, the creek flowing, and seagulls overhead.  He was quite moved in his describing and couldn't find all the words one needs to describe what it is to experience true wilderness solitude.  He said he couldn't find anything like this at home.  I understood completely.

Momma Loon on her nest on Jasper.  She and the father have been raising two
 young loons all summer long.  A Loon family of four on Jasper Lake.

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Fishing Report for Jasper Lake and the area

This season, June appears to have been the hottest month for fishing in Jasper and the area, overall.  Having Red Rock Wilderness Store here as part of Northwind Lodge affords us the ability to find out what is biting and where.  Plus, our Northwind Lodge guests caught the biggest fish and most species at the end of May and throughout June.  When the smallmouth were on the spawning beds this season (which is usually the third week in June for as long as I can remember), our guests were catching whoppers in smallmouth bass and the largemouth were doing pretty nicely, as well.

Once we entered July, our weather turned spectacular for the most part.  We had the occasional mega-downpour, but were very pleased with the nice temps and sunny days.  Only one day hit 90 degrees F and everyone was griping at the horrific discomfort and terrible sweatiness it caused - for one day.  I kept reminding the complainers that we had a normal winter last season which means actual temps dipping to -40 degrees F and six whole weeks of -23 to -25 degree F mornings.  It became apparent to me that many among us have really short memories with everything from politics to weather.  Once we made it past our 15 hour heat wave, summer fell lock-step into mid-seventies by day and mid-to-high forties by night.  That went on for days on end.  It was awful to be so comfortable.  I do think it caused some issues with fishing as while we humans like the climate-controlled temps of northern Minnesota (at least for this year and probably never again), the fish find it less enjoyable or at least un-motivating.  The barometric pressure remained high and infrequently moving for many of the days past.  Fishing is always best when atmospheric pressure is changing and preferably on the rise.  When it remains high all the time, while that is better than a fish depressing low, it is not as good as an inspirational rise.  With the more variable weather of June, fishing was more exciting and in that lies no surprise.  June generally brings about bigger fish and more activity in general. This June was no different.

As for recent activity, there have been quite a few customers coming into Red Rock (our store and the Northwind Lodge office) asking for very specific lures to catch northern pike.  We have thousands of lures in the store here and whenever we don't have the exact color/design/brand in stock, we get a lot of varied remarks of great disappointment.  "Well, one would think that with 25,000 lures in stock, you'd for certain have MY color/brand/model!"  When I ask what they are using that specific color to catch, they invariably say "northern pike".  At that point, great restraint must be put forth on my presentation that five different customers have been in today all asking for a really different specific lure "for northerns".  That in itself should really easily indicate that the northerns are biting and they are biting EVERYTHING.  Northern pike are like that.  They can really be biting and they pretty much are biting from a reaction to the lure. How do I know that?  I've personally watched LOTS of northern pike under the ice with underwater cameras.  It also doesn't hurt that I fished hard for many years as a guide.  For more current data, Rapala came out with their Scatter Rap which is a whole line of lures that wobble when pulled through the water, but then suddenly shoots off in an erratic motion.  That erratic, occasional veering off-course makes fish take notice.  That notice can result in a reaction strike.  Northerns are reactive fish.   Yes, there are occasional times when they do hit one color over another, but more often than not, they will hit all the lures in your tackle box and sometimes even a six inch yellow, plastic, braided rope with a treble hook attached.  Fishing northern pike is the easiest of all the fish and they are very aggressive.  That is why the limit for them is three.  The trick is finding the big ones.  There is a reason that big fish are big - they are not stupid.

Now, does that mean that northerns will hit every lure you throw out of the boat?  No.  Sometimes, they are simply not in the mood.  The point that I am trying to make is that if you don't find your exact, trusty, confidence lure for northern pike, don't worry about it.  We have about 100 others that will do quite well and on some days nothing works.  Incidentally, the exact same thing can be said for worm harnesses and spinner rigs for walleye fishing.  Colorado or Indiana blade - it's not going to matter that much.  Spin, flash, bite.    For July and August, slap on a  fluorescent orange, chartreuse, or copper colored blade, hook on a worm, and throw it over the side.  Troll around the cabbage weed bed edges and be on the bottom.  Other colors will work as well. They are really more interested in the worm.  

As of late, northerns and bass have been slamming top water lures like Zara Spooks, Chug Bugs, various poppers and  Jig-N-Pigs which are pretty weedless and fun to use.  The best fishing in Jasper appeared to be from 5 AM to 8 AM when the pressure seemed to increase every day for the past ten days.  That was for the Kowalyshens in Cabin 7.  Jim Rhoads and son Dan, and  grandson Abraham did well during a wide range of daytime hours.  Terry Rose, caught fish at all day times but noted that the fishing was a bit slower overall this season.  I'm still holding the spectacular weather to be responsible for slow fish activity.    What was inexplicable was that the bluegills disappeared for the past two weeks.  Normally, this time of year, they are jumping in the boat.   We'll have to see what the rest of August and September brings.  

Lake trout have been hitting big jigs at 90 feet in Snowbank Lake.  Catching lakers at this time of year requires a special skill set.  Rainbow trout in Tofte Lake (next door to us) has been producing some nice rainbows from trolling with Salmo Hornets in Rainbow Dace pattern which is exactly like the minnows that are in Tofte.  To use these little beauties, you simply troll them behind the boat about 150 to 200 feet....and the rainbows are tasty!

We'll see what this week brings.  I'm hoping to sneak a little time on the water as well.  For the bulk of the summer, I spent my time talking about fishing in the store for 12 hours per day, seven days a week since the first week of June which was my last trip to date.  

The ax is becoming dull.  I need to go sharpen it.

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Have Faith - Unwind - Pay Your Dues - Catch Fish

For as long as I can remember, people have come here to fish.  Most usually stay a week.   Upon arrival, some of them get all upset after driving for 12 hours.  They run down to the lake bleary-eyed, jump in a boat and beat the water to a froth expecting all manner of fish to come hurling themselves over the gunwales of the boat.  Over the years, a few of them have had the unbelievable fortune of succeeding, but the reality of the fact remains that fish seldom do this anywhere, especially for somebody new to any particular lake.   That fact doesn't offer solace to some as they walk around with a deflated pout because their 347 days of exponentially multiplying expectations didn't present itself in immediate gratification via a boatload of fish.

However, as the week rolls forward, they usually catch a few here and there.  Enough to pique their interest so that progress gets them on the water, helping them refine their technique and dial it in for this lake.  Also remember that just because the fish bite purple green Spiffy-diffy's on Lake Pacodumptruck in Wisconsin is not a guarantee that they will do the same here.  The best thing one can do at Northwind Lodge is come over to the store and see what they've been biting on in Jasper or the region.  Bring along your tackle box and we can narrow down and separate the lures that work here from the lures that make our fish giggle and say "Seriously?!"

One of the most fascinating phenomenon I've seen here occurs the last three days of almost everybody's fishing on Jasper.  For as far back as I can remember, it seems that our new guests take about the three total days to figure out the "feel" of the lake.  Then the last three days, they run into fish.  It is not always, but it is "often" that the biggest, and the most fish are caught in the last three days of a guest's stay.   It begins Wednesday and goes through Friday.   I'd say that it is a combination of commitment, determination and good vibes.  Maybe they are sending out good vibrations and the fish are finally attracted to it.  That may or may not be so crazy sounding as I swear I know people who are "fish-magnets".  I think fish are drawn to them based on their vibes or magnetic field.  Those are the people who can tie a stick of chewing gum on their line with no hook and land a walleye.   I've been in the boat with those types of people and to test the theory I will tie on the same piece of gum, fish one foot from their line, and watch them catch everything while I stare in amazement.

Fortunately, I don't really care that much for myself; but prefer that somebody from my group is catching something.  I always figure my day will come and it has, many many times, but not yet enough for me to want hang up fishing.   Fishing is really Mother Nature's big outdoor casino.  You cast your line and see what you win. The difference from a real casino is that if you tied your knot properly, you usually get your lure back and cast it again.   A real casino just takes your lure and gives it to somebody else.    Despite having done this for all of my life, I still think "today is the day" at the beginning of each day that I get out on the water and cast my line.  You never know what you are going to get for certain.

So, I understand why it is that many of our guests charge out onto the water in a sleep-deprived and sometimes, ornery, state of mind.  They've waited a whole year for this and "Today is THE day!"  But just remember:  usually, the first three days stinks "catch-wise" and the last three days greatly improves.  One develops a feel for the lake at some subconscious level.   That isn't always the case, but I've personally witnessed it more often than not.  That is also why coming up to stay for two or three nights usually won't cut it.  You just start unwinding and you have to head back home.  Uggghh...   Northern Minnesota vacations for three days and two nights are a great way to run around and be more tired than when one arrived.  Just a thought from a seasoned Minnesota resort operator.

The Normans - Wood Lake Catch - Northwind Lodge Dock - June 2014

(this whole family is a collective fish magnet)

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Enjoy Wilderness Without Sleeping on a Rock

Feeling creative today with a radio ad I put together about "not sleeping on a rock" and still enjoying wilderness.  I set it to pictures from Jasper Lake and Northwind Lodge.  It's only 41 seconds long.  Enjoy.

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Northwind Lodge - River tour

Take an outside tour of Northwind Lodge and Jasper Creek in early spring right after ice out.  It was a beautiful day on May 10, 2014, opening day of fishing!

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You run the Chainsaw

Run a chainsaw and a Bobcat right from your computer.  Well, maybe not.  But, if you were able to do it, it would look like this.

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Putting in the Second Dock - the Finale!

The second T-Dock at Northwind Lodge gets launched.  This is the final video in this exciting series.  Curt got water in his boot.

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See Vid #1

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Putting in the Docks at Northwind Lodge - Vid #2 of three

In case you ever get a  a hankerin' to put in docks on a resort NE of Ely, MN just south of the Canadian border, this is how you can do it.  Think of this as a How-to from Northwind Lodge.  May 9th was a dreary day.  So dreary, that I got the date wrong on the video.  May 10th was (is) a beautiful day - finally.

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Putting in the Dock at Northwind Lodge - #1

Every season, we roll 'em in and then roll 'em out.  Fortunately, our docks are on wheels.  The ice finally disappeared on Thursday night, so Friday morning, we were able to put in the docks.  This is truly gripping video, all three of them.  But, it exemplifies Life on a Minnesota Resort!

See Vid  #2 here

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V is for Victory

Way back in 1939, my grandpa Frank Baltich decided he wanted to settle on Jasper Lake with a trapping shack.  The land here had all been logged off in earlier years and it was making a comeback as it always does.  The shack that he built was a small, one room, vertical log building that he heated with wood. Of course, Grandpa had to dig it into the side of the hill and my uncles Frank and John helped move the dirt from the steep hill towards the lake,  Then, after digging out a hole right up to a a huge rock, he built the cabin's corner RIGHT next to the rock.  He also did that with Cabin #5  and Cabin #8 much to my chagrin, that of my dad's, and my brother Bernie.  What would it have hurt to build it three feet from the rock so the grandkids wouldn't have to wonder how they are going to dig it out 68+ years later?

Anyway, Grandpa decided to add a porch to the nice little log cabin overlooking Jasper Lake.  As he was adding the porch, Dec. 7, 1941 rolled around and Japan came up with the crazy plan to bomb Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  When the news made it to Ely, Grandpa said ominously that Frank, Jr. was going to end up going to war via the draft.   It was a sad realization.

Frank, Jr. got the call by Uncle Sam and ended up in the Battle of the Bulge in Germany.  Grandpa was worried sick, and he was still working on that porch.  

He had traveled from the old country to America to build a better life.  Like most immigrants, he carved out his existence in the Land of Opportunity working for 16 years deep in the underground mine that is now Miner's lake in Ely  During his time here, he adopted the United States as his home and his land.

That brings us back to the porch of that log trapping shack.  If you paddle by it on the water, you will see it, but if I didn't tell you, you would never notice it.  In the logs, there is a  big log "V"  that Grandpa built into that porch.  The logs were painted in a pattern of red, white and blue that I remember seeing as a small child.   It was his way of showing support and hope for our country and his kids.  It must have been a favorable talisman built into the wall of Grandpa's Log Cabin overlooking Jasper Lake.  All three of his sons were drafted into two different wars and all three came home alive and  went on to build their own  long lives here in Minnesota.

So, if you are paddling past an old log cabin on the southwestern shore of Jasper Lake, look for the "V".  There are many stories behind those two logs.

Scenes from Northwind Lodge - 70 years and counting!

Jasper Creek Falls at Northwind Lodge by Cabin 2

Northwind Lodge has now 70 years of continuous operation by the same family under it's belt. It began with my grandpa and grandma Frank & Mary to my dad and mom, Joe & Paula to me and my wife, Joe, Jr. & Annette.  

I'd like to introduce you to a few of the faces of the people with whom we grew up in the resort life at Northwind Lodge.  Yes, these are modern years depicted, but this is only a tiny smattering of the photos of the folks who've been staying with us year after year for over 50 years with some families!  I often think about all the family histories to which we've been a part and it is truly amazing.  Births, deaths, marriages starting-ending-repairing, new jobs, job losses, new cars, illnesses, healing, quirks, happiness, peacefulness, a thousand-plus different stories, all as we come to know our lodge guests many of whom have become close family of sorts living far away for the rest of the year. Northwind Lodge is not simply a "property" to us Baltich's.  Our history is rich and deep with more exposures to more people than most will see in an entire lifetime.

Also included are scenes from our resort.  This is what wilderness living looks like today.  At Northwind Lodge, it is still a lot like it was 70 years ago but now the water runs in plumbing as opposed to having to "run and go get it" like we did back in the day.  


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