Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Lake One to Insula
by Fire&Ice

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/14/2006
Entry & Exit Point: Lake One (EP 30)
Number of Days: 5
Group Size: 4
Trip Introduction:
Second trip into the BWCA. 1st time for other couple joining us on this trip. We were unsure of how far we would travel the first day and really wanted to base camp in Insula and day trip from there.
Report
Up at 7, ate breakfast at the outfitters and then off to the bait shop for fishing licenses and leeches. We arrived at Lake One at around 830. Loaded our ultralite canoes and off we went. Ended up cruising the first few bays looking for the right way out to the rest of the lake. But our misguidence was over come by the couple of deer we cruised by drinking and eating as they watched us go by them.

We were pretty determined to get to Insula the first day. First couple of portages were not too crowded. We paddled into lake four before we stopped for our well deserved lunch. Continuing to paddle hard to get into Hudson Lake, the wind was heading into us all morning. The portages getting into and exiting Hudson Lake were more crowded and you could definitely tell who had been to the BWCA before and who was a first timer. Some groups of people like to invade the portage like the troops landing at Normandy. Leaving no room or consideration for the people coming from the other side. 

We finally managed to get into Insula by mid afternoon. We were pretty exhausted from the amount to paddling but very excited we accomplished what we hoped we would accomplish. Onward to finding a campsite on an island. We then decided this should be called turtle island as for the amount of turtles that also called it home. After setting up camp and eating supper. We took a little bit of time to fish from shore. Caught some dandy walleyes right in front of our new home for a few days.

Day 2. Feeling the affects of a hard days paddle, we opted to just hang out and enjoy the beauty of where we were and just fished and cruised our immediate area. Fish weren't as cooperative as they were the first day in front of our campsite. We paddled the windless shorelines and caught lots of fish on leeches.

Day 3. Up and at em early. We decided to venture out and explore areas further away today. Found a great area and fished lots of action of small mouth bass, northern pike, rock bass and walleye. We worked lots of shore line and caught fish and missed a few of em too. Find it funny when you plop a nice fat leech and then the fish decide the bobber is more attractive and hit the bobber instead. Caught one nice walleye which was side dish to our lunch.

Some of our group decided to head back to camp while the others decided to fish some more. We finally found the honey hole. Almost every cast ended up with a fish on. Some times the fish won and stole our bait! Not a bad way to finish up a great day trip. Back to camp for some supper and a little bit more fishing before we hit the sleeping bags for some shuteye.

Day 4. Decided to break camp and start heading back to our entry point. Decided we didn't want to paddle all the way out on the last day. Paddled back to lake 2 and started looking for a campsite. Found it quite difficult with the amount of people who come and go through that area. Especially after dealing with on and off rain with a few down pours in between. We did find our campsite and we disappointed with the amount of garbage left behind. Full glass beer bottles in the rocks by the waters. Fishing lures or knotted line on the shoreline. Stuff they tried to burn which never completely burned. I understand that a lot of people use this area, but pack it in pack it out people. Fished during the drizzly rain, found another honey hole. First quite a few decent small mouths with a few decent gills thrown in. Then the cream of the crop, a 5 lb large mouth bass. Didn't know they were in there. Fished for decent pan fish and lost track of time. Ended up almost missing dinner because we were hooked on the fishing.

Day 5. Awoke to wind and lots of it. Sure glad we decided to head partially home the day before. Broke camp and fought the wind for 2 hours to get out to entry point. Bright sun was a great site from the rainy day we had before but the wind was a killer. We felt pity for the folks entering that day and had to deal with the wind and lots of it. And it was going to be in their faces all day long and they would probably need to get to lake 3 before they would find an open campsite! 

All and all, it was a great trip. Good fishing and great company.