A long cold winter and an early Memorial Day gave us a chance to fish right after ice out! Fantastic fishing for big Northerns in shallow water! Seven Northerns 40″ and larger! 21 Northerns 35″ and bigger. Wow!
A great crew! Mark, Ron, Jim, Zack and John Cunningham, Steve and Tim Pelton, Kendall and Cade Strawmatt and Mark Wanous. Missed having Fred and the younger kids on this trip.
Thursday May 21, 2026
Without picking up Fred in Eagle River, I drove alone to Two Harbors MN along to meet the guys shortly before 1:00. Cool along Lake Superior. After lunch, John jumped in with me and drove to Rydens for gas and ice. Stayed the night at the Grand Portage Casino. Nice, reasonably priced prime rib dinner was tasty.
Friday May 22, 2026
Breakfast was again reasonably priced. Bought beer at the Duty Free store. Made it across the border without incident. Stopped at the Silver Minnow Bait Shop for leaches, minnows and to wrap a Mark and Jim’s trucks in crash wrap. Met some logging trucks, but easy driving north. The main logging road was in good shape, dusty, but pretty smooth. After all th heavy snow they got over the winter and recent rains, the washouts were a bit deeper than normal. Talked to a guy on an ATV, he was seining minnows.
It snowed on Tuesday and we could still see snow in the shaded areas of the woods.
Zack found a moose antler shed on the side of the road.
Our Canadien friends had cleared the worst parts of the logging trail, so we made good time until Tim missed a turn and drove down the wrong road to their camp. After a brief visit and a slight delay, we made it to camp in plenty of time to setup the tents and get the 5 boats in the water.
Saw a few Grouse, but they blend into the brown grass so well, they are hard to see.
Brats and beans for dinner and a nice campfire before the rain started at 10:30.
Saturday, May 26, 2026
Daughter’s tent leaked badly in the rain. First dripping into our faces, before we moved to just get the sleeping bags soaked.
Somehow forgot the coffee pot, but Jim and Ken made tasty egg coffee. Pancakes, eggs and bacon were tasty on a cool morning.
We had trouble getting Mark Wanous’s Evinrude motor going, so we got John’s spare from the truck. Mark Cunningham’s motor died close to camp and had to town him back to camp. We swapped gas tanks to get that working.
We finally got all the boats going
Four boats took off through the channel while Ken and Cade decided to fish the home bay first. Mark W and Zack got to the channel before their motor quit. Ken towed them back to camp to use my spare 15 hp Mercury. An inauspicious start!
Tim had some luck with his bottom bouncer with a spinner and a minnow near slip bobber point.
Jim caught a big 41″ Northern.
Steve Pelton 