Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

What a blast! Gabbro - BE - Pietro - Kawishiwi - Clear
by Badgerboy

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/21/2008
Entry Point: Little Gabbro Lake (EP 33)
Exit Point: Farm Lake (EP 31)  
Number of Days: 6
Group Size: 4
Day 2 of 6
Sunday, June 22, 2008 The plan for today was to hang around the area and fish. After a good breakfast of pancakes we were off. We avoided the obvious portage next to the rapids into B.E. and headed back into the bay to the right of the rapids for the much simpler portage into B.E.. It is not on most maps but that is the way to go. Because of the high water the rapids from B.E. into Gabbro were very runable (going downstream) and we took several turns through them as the boys thought this was big fun. We ate lunch in the canoe and fished till evening. We had good success for pike in the bays around the rapids. My Dad, who is not a fisherman, caught his first couple of fish in over 60 years or so he claims.  We also hit some walleye near evening around the back side of campsite 1717 along the rock dropoffs. We made one last circuit to run the rapids. During this trip I gave Keegan my rod with a silver rap and told him to cast into the tiny little bay that is on the B.E. side of the "secret" portage while I worked the canoe over the rocks. On his 3rd cast I heard the drag start to sing and turned to see his pole bent in half and a huge smile on his face. I had not used a steel leader which I would very quickly regret. He got the Northern up to the rocks and were about to drag him up when the fish rolled and snapped the line. He was major bummed and I was so mad I jumped up and down a couple of times and ended up twisting an ankle! While I nursed my ankle we tied on a steel leader and another silver rap and I gave the rod back to Keegan and told him to try again. This time it was his 2nd cast and he had a fish on (I still don't have the canoe over the portage). As he played this fish he joked about how cool it would be if this was the same fish. He finally pulled his "monster" up on the rocks and he let out a whoop of joy. Then to our utter amazement we discovered that in fact this was the same fish as it had both rapala's in its mouth, that was one hungry fish! We headed back to camp and had steak and fish for dinner.

Raleigh took off after dinner to the back bay to take a shot with some minnows in the weeds. Just about the time I was going to get him with the flashlight he came around the bend with a huge smile and 2 nice Crappie. He had found alot of crappie action but only kept the 2 big ones as he was worried about keeping the fish cold till morning. We spent a while star gazing and then hit the sack.