Took a four night trip into the Boundary Waters with my brother Ben weekend after opener. The intent was to make a 30-mile loop, leaving from Cross Bay, down to Frost Lake (spending two nights there), over on the Frost River and then up to Gillis Lake (spend another two nights) and in to Round to get out.
Day 1 was great for traveling. We spent the night in a Tuscarora Outfitters bunkh
ouse, had a sweet french toast breakfast and hit the water. It was a pretty windy day, but as we were traveling along smaller, generally narrow lakes, it didn't affect us much. It took us about 5 hours to navigate the dozen portages and lakes down to Frost. We got a little snow on the way in and saw three other parties. The first was a pair of hardcore fishing-types who found the water to be too cool to their (and the fish apparently) liking. A father/son combo comin
g out of Frost had a much more optimistic report and gave us the G2 on where the lakers were. After setting up camp, we set out for a little fish, each netting a laker while trolling. Steaks called us in.
ouse, had a sweet french toast breakfast and hit the water. It was a pretty windy day, but as we were traveling along smaller, generally narrow lakes, it didn't affect us much. It took us about 5 hours to navigate the dozen portages and lakes down to Frost. We got a little snow on the way in and saw three other parties. The first was a pair of hardcore fishing-types who found the water to be too cool to their (and the fish apparently) liking. A father/son combo comin
g out of Frost had a much more optimistic report and gave us the G2 on where the lakers were. After setting up camp, we set out for a little fish, each netting a laker while trolling. Steaks called us in.Day 2. Lots of Lakers
The wind was kicking up early during breakfast. We briefly contemplated pushing on to Gillis under the 
reasoning that we wouldn't be able to troll much on Frost in that wind, so we might as well eat up ground. We decided to stay and fish off the leeward side of the island, which has a nice drop-off. It turned out to be a good decision. Ben caught 8-10 lakers
on ciscoe-tipped spoons 5 feet below a bobber. He was calling his shots and catching fish nearly at will. My slip bobber with ciscoe on a corky rig didn't fare nearly as well, netting only one. I tried spinning for awhile and got 3-4 that way.
reasoning that we wouldn't be able to troll much on Frost in that wind, so we might as well eat up ground. We decided to stay and fish off the leeward side of the island, which has a nice drop-off. It turned out to be a good decision. Ben caught 8-10 lakers
on ciscoe-tipped spoons 5 feet below a bobber. He was calling his shots and catching fish nearly at will. My slip bobber with ciscoe on a corky rig didn't fare nearly as well, netting only one. I tried spinning for awhile and got 3-4 that way.Day 3. Change in Plans
We woke up Saturday morning to a coating of snow on the ground and the wind howling out of the NW. We decided against travel to Gillis (7 hours) and instead found a way to do a little fishing and keep warm. Our fishing point from the previous day was taking direct waves, and we nearly flipped the canoe trying to navigate away from it. We ended up trapped on the south side of the island while whitecaps rolled down the lake.
Ben still managed to catch a couple lakers off a shelf.
Sunday was georgeous - we backtracked a couple hours towards Cross Bay and set up at Karl Lake, just north of Long Island. We had no idea what was in it, but it looked fishy, and we got a great campsite. We caught a few lakers - including a 5 pounder - and a number of pesky northerns.
Day 5. Re-entry
Ground zero on Hamm Lake. I thought we'd find nothing but charcoal on the lake, but the way it took off NW from the campsite very little of Hamm Lake was affected. You can see here where the fire skipped across the channel from the campsite.
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