Lessons Learned and Final Stats
Gear notes:
Northstar Northwind 18 in Black Lite: This canoe is a joy to paddle with two people. When goofing off in our shallow mucky bay, Andrew and I rocked back and forth violently to test the stability, and had zero worries about capsizing, thanks to the outstanding secondary stability of this canoe. I look forward to making many memories in this canoe with my kids! My only concern is that it will be difficult to comfortably fit a third paddler on travel days when loaded. Soon enough we will test that out. When fishing, there’s adequate room for three and we’ve had four fishing at once which works but can get chaotic at times.
WarBonnet RidgeRunner hammock with Super Fly tarp: This was absolutely a hit.
DutchWare tarp hardware and poles for quick rigging: Switching to shock cord loops plus lengths of zing it on line winders with DutchWare ringworms eliminated so many headaches and tangles, making setup a breeze. I still need to mess around with setting the continuous ridgeline for the tarp, for some reason I had trouble adjusting the tarp horizontally between the trees even though I know I can. I also added DutchWare poles for the panel pulls on our tarps, which added an incredible amount of standing room space under the tarps. In the same vein, all the time and money invested in pre-rigging the CCS tarp for quick deployment was worth it.
Garmin Striker 4 with Nocqua battery: As noted above, this got left behind, and that was absolutely the right choice for us in this situation. I’ll still use this setup when fishing around home, but I’m still just learning how to use it. Less bulk and weight saved us a lot of headaches this time around.
YakAttack Omega Pro Track Mounted Rod Holder: I loved using this, until it fell in the lake. I bought a replacement as soon as we got home. Especially when paddling stern while the kids fish, it keeps the pole out of the way of my paddle stroke and makes it easier for me to see and react to strikes. I love the convenience and adjustability that the track mount offers, however, I’ve yet to find a great way to mount a piece of track directly to the canoe. So I’m still on the hunt for a simple, non-clunky rod holder that can securely mount to the gunwale.
An extra fishing pole, live bait: Zero luck with this. But as long as these trips are fishing focused, I’ll probably continue to bring along the extra pole. I know leeches are a nearly guaranteed to catch fish, but I’ve had zero success with them, and may be dropping them off the gear list.
FryBake Expedition pan: I hadn’t brought this on my solo trips, but frying fish and summer sausage/cheese/crackers was a breeze with this pan. Plenty of space, use it on the fire, scrape it out, and never worry about it.
Extra 6L bladder for the gravity water filter: I felt pretty silly when I bought this. But between our daily protein shakes, powdered limeade mix, and constantly boiling water to rehydrate meals, the increased capacity greatly reduced our trips out to the lake to scoop water for the filter. With the extra bladder, we had to complete this chore once per day, using around 10 liters of water each day.
Youngstown Mechanic Gloves: I bought these at work due to my hands getting chapped and sore on past trips. By the end our hands were still feeling fatigued, but we liked these gloves way more than I thought we would. They protected us from wayward hooks and pike teeth while fishing. We wore them paddling and portaging. We wore them when sawing and splitting wood. Must have.
Everything I bought for Andrew: Just the bare minimum (clothing and a sleep system) was a large investment in the future of these trips. Spending more on a map, compass, saw, and a good camp chair wasn’t easy, but kept Andrew engaged and comfortable the whole time while learning wilderness skills. Worth it. I managed to find a used wool flannel on eBay that saw plenty of use too. We even got a compliment on how we dressed alike which was funny.
Way more fishing tackle than ever before: We committed to a fishing-centric trip, and that required lots more weight in tackle. Several lures had success that we didn’t expect, so I was happy with what we brought. Before the next trip, we will re-evaluate and pare down a bit, but also reload to make sure we have extras of our favorites and to account for lost lures.
Snacks and food: Several of my dehydrated meals just weren’t that good. The shrimp and crab options in particular were weak. There’s way too much rice in most of the meals. I’m going to try to bring some taco-seasoned beef for a meal or two next year, it should be a versatile option to add. The breakfast meals and desserts are fantastic, no change needed there. Top suppers are: Chili, couscous with sausage and tomatoes, unstuffed peppers, and penne with meat sauce. Both fried fish and summer sausage/cheese in the skillet blow all of those out of the water.
Decisions:
Bringing Andrew: It was everything I hoped it would be. He handled everything so well. I loved my solo trips and hope to do more of them, but there’s nothing quite like sharing the wilderness I love with my son for the first time. We now regularly share how eager we are for our next trip together, and relive the memories of this unforgettable first trip.
Routing + a single base camp site for the week: Considering the weather and timing of the better fishing days, this was the right call. It was risky considering the limited campsites on Grandpa and not very convenient backup options. The portage into Roy provided plenty of challenge and good fishing. A week is plenty long for this trip, and yet I’d still like to explore more around Grandpa Lake. In particular, I look forward to paddling Gump Lake someday. With some willingness to get muddy and an adventurous spirit, one could even try reaching Diamond and Larry Lakes. Grandpa is guarded by LONG TOUGH portages and BIG water, so getting to smaller lakes with good fishing from here takes a lot of time and effort. One can fish on Sea Gull or Sag for a day, but I prefer the smaller lakes, especially with a young man in the bow.
Campsite: We could have moved to the larger site early in the week. But we grew to love the site we stayed in. The jump rock really helped with that. Aside from the bugs, which were pretty annoying at times, we enjoyed our time there.
Guided fishing: The action was a lot slower than we had hoped for on the day with fished with Steven. That said, we learned a lot, and the smallmouth we caught on this trip were the largest of the week by far. Namely, the simple practice of fishing the windward side of the lake almost exclusively, something I should have learned decades ago. Also, we came away from the trip less intimidated by how to catch fish. Most of what we did on this guided day was very simple and didn’t require much more than persistence and a willingness to keep looking for the fish. I probably won’t spring for this in the future but I am still glad we did, and I really enjoyed spending the day with Steven sharing our life stories and learning more about the area.

Final Stats:

Portages: 10 | Portage rods: 990 | Portage miles: 3.1 | Paddle distance: 11 miles
Fish caught: 105 | Species: 63 smallmouth, 42 pike | Andrew: 56 fish (33 SB, 23 NP) | Dad: 49 fish (30 SB, 19 NP) | By lake: Saganaga 13, Roy 51, Grandpa 34, Tenor 7 | Top lures: Syclops 24, X-Rap 18, Z-Man plastic 17, Vibrax 16, Live leech 13, Choppo/Whopper Plopper 11