BWCA Float planes circling Sturgeon Lake? Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
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JustinLinnell1
senior member (52)senior membersenior member
  
05/25/2016 09:21AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Anyone know why there were float planes circling the South end of Sturgeon Lake on 5/23? I was fishing on Olifaunt and it seemed the were circling for hours. I heard there was a island fire off to the west of there, but these were closer than that.

 
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05/26/2016 11:04AM  
Were they constantly circling or did they seem to go away for short periods of time? It can be their version of the DNR checking canoeist on fishing regs, park permits... otherwise looking for fires is a good guess. Also they will use float planes to re-supply Park employees by air as well---they could of been circling waiting for a group to do a drop off. Sorry I only have guess from what I have seen previously.

T
JustinLinnell1
senior member (52)senior membersenior member
  
05/26/2016 02:58PM  
They seemed to be making fairly tight circles for about an hour around the south portion of the northern most bay of Sturgeon. We could only see them when they passed above the trees on Olifaunt where we were fishing. Fairly windy then and wondered if someone got in trouble or what was going on.
dentondoc
distinguished member(1097)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/26/2016 03:18PM  
I had a somewhat similar experience on Argo a few years back. A float plane came in and made several circles before setting down on the lake. It was also a windy day, as we were holed up at the Argo end of the Argo-Darkwater portage waiting for the wind to drop off.

The reason that the pilot made several circles is to guage wind and wave direction before setting down. He wanted to position himself to the wind would push him back, tail first, into the portage since it was apparently the only sandy spot on that section of lake.

As it turns out, the DNR pilot was dropping off a fish survey crew. (They were a bunch of "city folk" apparently, since they wanted us to wade out to help guide the tail of the plane into the portage. While they all stood high and dry on the pontoons, we waded out into waist deep water to lend a hand.)

dd
06/03/2016 05:44PM  
about 6 years ago they were radio tracking tagged sturgeon but by canoe or winter skiis.
 
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