Journal of a Minnesota Angler

My last two days on the Gunflint Trail were uneventful. It was hard to match day 6. I do have a story of note, though.

On day 7, Ken brought me to three bays near the portage to Liz Lake in the afternoon. Ken hooked a small smallie, but lost it and I caught another 11″ smallie, both in the second bay. That evening, we tried to go after a school of fish we saw earlier in the week that I’ll tell you more about later.

The next day, we returned again in the afternoon. In the first bay there are all kinds of rocks. All week, I had been persisting with jig and pigs to try to catch something with it. I hadn’t planned to use the flukes as much as I did, but I wasn’t catching anything with anything else.

That afternoon, I pulled out the jig and pig again. On a cast into the rocks in about 9 ft of water, I saw my rod tip twitch and felt a thunk. I wasn’t sure if it was a fish, but a few seconds later the same thing happened: twitch-thunk. The third time–twitch-thunk–I set the hook. FISH ON! It turned out to be the largest smallie of the week, but still only 12″.

Species: Smallmouth Bass
Size: 12″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

The reason I relay this story to you is because I caught this fish on my baitcaster and new St. Croix rod. It was the first one on the new setup. I was surprised at how the fish felt more like a thunk than a tap like on my spinning rod and reel. I’m not sure I like it. But I’ll have to catch some more fish on it to be sure.

This was my last outing before driving home. I would catch one more smallie at about 10″. I was particularly proud of that one because I had dropped my fluke over an exposed branch where it hit. I was able to pop it back over the branch before it got me all tangled up. That experience will help me if I ever get in another tight spot.

Now that I’ve recounted my fish over the week, I guess I didn’t do too badly. However, none of them were even close to what I would call lunkers. I’ll just have to keep searching for them on Ken’s lake.