A Landing Net's Life

My dad turned 83 years old yesterday and just to make the younger world feel diminished, I dragged him all the way down the Wood Lake portage and forced him to catch fish on Wood Lake for the day. The portage is 210 rods long or .58 miles long and it was muddy and rugged after yesterday’s heavy rains which is par for the course on portages. For an old guy with a fake knee and a double bypass some 15 years ago, he does pretty well. Of course, I brought along my sidekick Delilah.

Once we hit the trail, she began her Wood Lake portage routine of blasting ahead at full speed, turning off the trail into the woods and running parallel back along the trail only to come out behind me. From that point, she snorts past me again, tongue flopping and nothing but a blurry streak of fur to do it repeatedly for the entire trail. I figure that she runs about three times the length of the trail every time we walk it. In the back of my mind, I’m waiting for the moment she drives out a momma bear and cubs to meet me, but that hasn’t occurred….yet.

As I walked the trail carrying my oars, our rods and my pack, I noted the fresh tracks in the mud – two people ahead of me. As a boy, I was trained to not leave tracks – not in the figurative sense connected to symbolically saving the BWCA, but instead, for real. Hunting and trapping as a kid, we never wanted to be followed and the best way to avoid followers is to never leave tracks as best we could and we still do this to this day. As a result, I observe this telltale “flaw” in others all the time and today’s tracks in front of me were no different. I could tell both were men, in their late 30’s to early 40’s, weighing about 185 lbs. each. They wore big floppy hats, mosquito head nets, blue, white and black, paddling gloves, and brand new long sleeve, nylon button-down shirts with brand new nylon, zip off pants. 

As Delilah blasted silently down the portage, about 150 feet in front of me, up a hill and around a curve, I heard her let loose with the most ferocious, attack-dog bark her nine pound body could muster! First I thought ” bear” but that was immediately corrected. There was a scream and panic as a voice-in-terror yelled, “Gggaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! GET OUTTA HERE! GO AWAY!!!! ” as Delilah stopped them in their tracks. I tried to call her off, but she was unrelenting, so I picked up my pace to see two guys decked out in nylon shirts, zip-off pants, trail boots, blue-white-black paddling gloves, big hats and bug nets. Delilah finally shut up as her job was done attacking the space aliens. I chuckled and said when they passed, “I bet that scared the crap out of you!” to which one replied “Maybe a little…” Delilah looked back at me all proud and alert for taking down the “aliens” with a good, solid whoopin’. Then, she blasted down the portage once again. 

When we hit the water, we endured a beautiful day with moderate catching but enough to keep up busy all day long.   In a pretty true test, we found that live bait and artificial lures ended up producing about “neck and neck” . There was no real, obvious gain in using live bait over lures. Later in the day, the wind picked up and screamed from the west making for about 1.5 hours of tough rowing with a significant chop and some whitecaps.  I put together this video called “A Landing Net’s Life” since the I had the camera stuck to the net. 

Upon returning to the parking because not much wears Delilah out, she took off and chased a 70 foot long semi roaring past on the Fernberg Road. The present road crew tried to catch her but she blew past them, returning to me and prompting a parking lot visit by a concerned, but laughing foreman looking for “a little brown dog that was chasing one of their semi’s down the new asphalt.” Delilah stood up on the truck seat and smiled at him. 

Good dog, Delilah. Never give up.

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Yearning for the Good Old Days

I just had a party check out after staying one week here at Northwind Lodge.  Well, they paid up their tab and need to leave early tomorrow morning (Saturday) because of upcoming commitments.  Fortunately for me, I was able to talk with the parents and kids individually over the course of the week, and I gained some insight to the behavior and interaction of this family.

While I moved around the resort for various reasons over the course of the week, I found various members of this this family of six at the beach, in the store, and on the footpaths.  I saw the girls and mom out on the stand-up-paddle boards and water bikes, the boys were fishing with their dad and sometimes the whole family went out on the water.  They even took a trip as a family to Wood Lake which is something we rarely see these days.  Despite their arrival from a very windy day of BWCA rowing and struggling in gusts, they all came back smiling.  They didn't even look worse for the wear and nobody appeared ticked off.

In talking with the patriarch, I expressed how great it was for me to see an entire family enjoying their time together at our resort.   It is what I grew up with having been in the resort for my entire life and seeing mom & dad taking out the kids is "homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy" to me.  He told me that they had a wonderful time despite the fishing.  Fishing went from a rather exciting prior week to a big weather change with high winds and slow fishing this week even when I expected it to pick up.  They caught fish, but those fish sure weren't yelling "catch me" by any means.  That's why it's called fishing and not catching.

Also, in talking with the dad, he said it was a bit tough for the first day and a half upon their initial arrival. All four kids discovered that they had no cell service or wifi everywhere they went.  His term was "the shakes" regarding the electronic social disconnection, and he said that after that malady passed, the kids began to enjoy the simpler things like taking out a kayak or a SUP and doing something with their muscles.  They also played Battleship and other board games as a family.  We need more of this in the US today.

Then, he expressed that he really liked the cabin because it was roomy enough and felt like a cabin in the woods - not a condo in a development.  The part he truly enjoyed was Jasper Creek as it passes by outside.  With the constant, soothing white noise after being out in the fresh air day after day, he said that his whole family slept like logs and that meant HE slept like a log.  He hasn't slept THAT well in a long time.  The solid sleep was one of the parts that I sensed really "made" the trip for this dad.

The final part of the discussion was at the cost of staying in Ely.  Given the fun they had all week, he could not believe that we had cabin openings.  Comparatively, he said, for what one gets in a vacation in Ely - real wilderness, a cabin in the woods next to a lake, a real waterfall, water toys and fishing - the cost of having fun compared to other areas was downright cheap.  For the amount of money they spent for lodging and outside activities like a guided fishing day trip, they couldn't even touch such an adventure in Disneyland or some other place.  He estimated that it would cost four times as much easily.   So, he was surprised that we weren't packed reservation-wise given the enjoyable, relaxing, stay they had here.

It was good to hear that again from a family.  With the changing times in the New Normal, we don't get to hear or see it nearly as much as we should.  And, I know he wasn't making it up as they made reservations for next year.   I look forward to their arrival next season!  

Row, Row, Row Your Boat at Wood Lake and Northwind Lodge

Back when I was a lot younger, all of our resort guests were here to fish.  Well, sure, there were some of them who didn't fish, but fishing was the focus and they fished a lot.   Not only did they spend a lot of time on Jasper Lake, they spent at least one day on Wood Lake as well.  Our Wood Lake boats were constantly rented out, rain or shine.  We all grew up on Wood Lake when motors were allowed and all the following years after President Carter signed the rider called Rare II which was slipped into the BWCA law taking motor use on Wood Lake and a few other waters away from us and our guests.  That move alone instantly took away a large chunk of our wood lake rental business along with our old-school customers who believed that rowing a boat was impossible and fishing from a canoes was too scary/uncomfortable of an endeavor to pursue.  So, faced with yet another federal law wiping out a good portion of our business we concluded a few things.   We knew who one of the major driving forces behind RARE II was since his family lived summers on Jasper Lake.  Since this was a last-minute "rider" signed into the actual BWCA Law PL 95-495 by Carter introduced by the guy who knew us and what closing Wood Lake would do to our business, we still suspect that this was a deliberate attempt to harm our business.  Why else would he push such a specific lake that was not part of the original bill?   Either he was out do us harm, or he's so oblivious and far-gone in his ideology, he had no clue as to what forcing this issue would do to us.  Who knows?

The main takeaway of this whole saga is that we managed to survive despite our losing a large number of lodge guests who no longer could accept the changes forced upon them by this man and his so-called environmental organization "for the good of the country".  In 1978, we began rowing Wood Lake boats and found that we would now go farther and catch more fish than we did before while using outboards.  With an outboard motor, we were always beholden to the amount of gasoline we could carry on the portage.  Plus there was always the threat of a motor breaking down or malfunctioning.  That problem evaporated with oars.  Without using a motor, as fishing guides, my brother and I learned how to fish a spot more thoroughly.  Instead of picking up one or two fish like walleyes and moving on, we would work the region harder to get more bang for our rowing buck.

The most difficult part today is getting people to understand that when rowing, one takes his time, fishes while moving and before you know it, you are a long ways from the beginning.  The other critical part of rowing the most do not understand is that dunking the oar blades deep in the water actually slows you down with each stroke.   You want to dunk in half the blade and break some of the water surface with each stroke. That requires less strength, allows for more repetition and supports forward momentum.  By the time you finish a deep oar stroke, your boat's forward momentum conks out.  

Also rowing "over there" and not fishing while you are heading there, is inefficient and a complete waste of potentially good water and calories.  You fish along the way, and if you find a fish before you get to a "hot spot", well, screw that spot!  Fish here!  With a motor on a boat, you most likely would never have tried that place nor would you have ever discovered what was there.  You would be too busy going fast over there to "the spot".

So, whether or not it was a deliberate attack upon Northwind Lodge to add Wood Lake to the BWCA with the sneaky, subversive, last-minute rider inserted into a 1978 bill in Congress, it backfired.  Yes, it did really hurt our business forcing us to adapt and change our technique and operation plus find new customers who were unafraid of fishing with a motor.  As a result however, we can really row a boat and have become very adept at handling a fishing rod with no hands and quick reflexes.  We ended up applying these abilities to guiding for many years on the Canadian side of Basswood.   We've all rowed a million miles and are perhaps in better shape than many people our age.  We also know from experience that there is no reason not to take a day trip to Wood Lake when you come up to Northwind Lodge.  If you can walk uphill/downhill, sit in a boat, move your arms for eight hours or so, and are comfortable with taking your time on the water, you'll do fine and have a great day. 

Here is what rowing looks like from a point-of-view perspective.  This alternating technique is how you want to make the boat travel for trolling and a steady trolling pace like this will make your arms looked a bit ripped when you get home that evening.  Developing your "cat-like" reflexes is also a plus.

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