Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Week of a Lifetime
by ILikePike

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/01/2008
Entry & Exit Point: Clearwater Lake (EP 62)
Number of Days: 3
Group Size: 6
Part 3 of 4
August 2, 2008. An early rise at 6am for my dad and I planning a trip to Rove and Watap Lakes. Another quick breakfast of poptarts and oatmeal and we were off around 6:30. An easy paddle to our first portage on the far east side of Caribou. Even though its not too long at 143 rods, there are many ups and downs with some mud, which makes it tough. The stagnant water makes the mosquitoes have Thanksgiving on behalf of my dad and I. Now the sun is bright on Clearwater Lake, and we can see atleast 25 feet down. A note we take in about how the fish could easily see us while fishing. The next portage into Mountain Lake is pretty easy but starts off with a steep hill with "stairs". On the map it shows the Boarder Route Trail goes through the portage but the BRT is not real distinct and you shouldn't mistakenly go on it. After the quick paddle through Mountain, we reach the Watap Portage. A Canadian/ American monument greets us. Another short portage but many trees are knocked down from the blowdown, which makes you feel that you are closer to the other lake than you really are. Blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries were eaten during the portage.

Once as we set our canoe in Watap, two 16 inch smallmouths swim away giving a good sign for fishing. Using a pumpkinseed colored tube jig, I catch a 16 and 18 inch smallie in my first five casts... good start. After those two fish, my dad caught one decent smallie on a chug bug. That was the last fish for three hours. We fished all the way down the south shore of Watap and reached where Rove and Watap met. In the narrows of Rove, we started catching smallmouth after smallmouth. At one point in time we had fish in seven straight casts! It's like a lightswitch was flipped on so they could start to bite, but it is probably because clouds moved in and brought a new system. Our biggest in size was a chubby 19 incher. We needed to get back to camp at Caribou so we fished on and off on the rest of Watap. Fishing continued to be great on Watap. On those two lakes we probably caught 40-50 nice sized smallmouths in a short amount of time.

We arrive at the Mountain/Clearwater portage and there is a group of girl scouts taking up half the landing. Knowing that we need to get back quick, we take the other half and fly through the portage. As we were leaving we heard their leader say, "Those guys are on a mission." We just did what we normally did, unload fast, and not lollygag like they did. We arrive back at camp right before dark, and we were exhausted after about a 15 mile trek in a day. Others caught fish during the day so we had some before we went to bed.