Isle Royale and Voyaguers trip (lots of pictures)

[TnRiver46]

Starting to wrap up my 40th birthday trip, we are driving back slowly starting today for 3 days. 

 

We arrived at grand portage, MN on Friday night to embark on the ferry ride bright and early Saturday morning. The ferry ride was pretty awesome with lots of great views on Lake Superior 

 

First stop on the island was McCargo cove where we camped for 2 days. They have a nice dock area for fishing. We hiked to an old abandoned mine that was pretty cool. Mosquitos were aggressive 

Didn’t have a ton of time but I struck out fishing the first evening off/around the dock in Lake Superior. Weedy and shallow waters that are ultra clear, and the boat captain told me there were no smallmouth bass in the area…… didn’t realize that was possible 😂. Sunday morning I climbed out of my tent and snuck down to the dock. I was using a small blade bait just trying to catch fish of any kind and got it stuck. When it popped free a fish clobbered it, my first catch in Lake Superior was a nice pike!!! 

 

Luckily some guys came down to jump into the lake and wash their clothes, one of them snapped a pic for me. I had my measuring tape with me but didn’t realize it so I let the fish go , I was pretty certain it wouldn’t meet the 24” minimum anyway. I made a notch on my rod and it turned out to be 22” so I made the right call. The other guys were shocked that I would follow a regulation in the middle of nowhere 😂. I then caught a little perch that I let go just because it was tiny 

 

Later that day we hiked to one of the nearly 200 inland lakes on the island called chickenbone lake. The hiking was what the locals called “car wash” with vegetation slapping you the whole time.

 

 

The inland lakes are barbless only but don’t require a fishing license and you can keep 2 pike under 30” . I had one swirl on a fluke and just sit right in front of me. I showed it to my hiking partners and missed it two more times. They hiked on and I finally got the darn thing after missing it several more times and it biting off 2 lures. I then waded out to retrieve one of the lures and face planted in the water 😂. A little further down the trail I got another pike and just started hoofing it back to camp since I had my 2 keepers. We fried them up at camp they were delicious, I could have went home happy right then but the fish kept on coming 

 

We had to catch a ferry midday the next day, I really wanted my buddy to catch a pike so we hiked back to chickenbone in the morning and got skunked haha. I told him it was ultra easy no problem to catch one, apparently not although we didn’t have time to walk all the way to where I fished the previous day. We got on the ferry and headed to rock harbor where there is actually a lodge and boat/canoe rentals and a restaurant. We only had time enough to claim a campsite and eat at the restaurant, no fishing on this stop. Did do a little short night hike and saw the monster toads that live on the island. We had to break down camp quick and catch an early morning ferry but while we were doing so a fox came into our camp and took a dump right in front of 7 of us 😂 

 

The early morning ferry then took us to daisy farm. I fished off the dock here a bit but it was strong wind and didn’t have any luck. 

Our campsite was 4 miles away at moskey basin so we had a little backpacking to do. The trail wasn’t steep but it was sure rocky and took longer than expected. 

We finally arrived at Moskey to another nice boat dock we had heard good things about but it was a bust other than a huge brook trout that a dozen people tried to catch but couldn’t haha. It looked to be a solid 4 lber and everyone could see it for 2 days straight .

 

 

We camped two nights at moskey. One of the days we hiked into an inland lake called Lake Ritchie. As soon as we got there, our friend Leah said she would be happy just catching a bluegill. I reeled in a fluke and saw 4-5 small fish chasing after it nipping the tail. I told Leah there were bluegill so I rigged up some tiny stuff and immediately caught a yellow perch, which I thought were sunfish. We then proceeded to catch quite a few perch and finally decided to keep some. I think we had 6 or 7 on a stringer and were discussing when to hike 2 miles back to camp. About that time my float went under and I set the hook and instantly hollered out “NOT A PERCH!!!”. Turns out a pike had eaten my 1 inch piece of a plastic worm on a tiny jighead! I got him up onto the shore to bolster the fish haul. We then hiked back and cooked them on the shore of superior, all decided that was the furthest we had walked while holding fish. The pike had a yellow perch inside its stomach 

 

The ferry was picking us up back at daisy farm 4 miles away at 8 am so we had to hike out in the darkness. Saw more monster toads and a pretty sunrise on the rocky trail, made it 30 minutes faster than we did on the way in. Saw some wolf tracks and poo as well

 

This marked the end of our isle royale experience as we boarded the 8 am ferry. We still made several stops on the way out picking up other campers and got lots more pretty views but never set foot on the rocks again.

 

Once making it back to our cars at grand portage, we pointed them towards Voyageurs NP and hammered down. Passed a cool sign

 

We arrived at our rental home on Rainy Lake well after dark, which is very late in the north country. Dead tired, we crashed in excitement of all day canoe/kayak rentals the next day. Our boats were waiting at a launch in the morning and off we went. The wind was howling. We thought for sure we would have to stick close to the ramp. I missed a fish on a Johnson silver minnow in the grass right off the bat. Not long after that I boated a pike not 100 yards from the car. Shaping up to be a good day! Then an eagle was flying all around us while paddling. We caught several more pike in that area on spoon and fluke. 3 of our party were not fishing and paddled to a hiking trail that led to a big beaver pond. They sent us a location and it was across a wide open part of the lake with huge waves, I said multiple times that was an impossible crossing. Well I was wrong because we paddle right across it without incident, my wife was nervous but once we made it there and back she said it boosted her open water confidence. There was a nice dock to fish off of at the trailhead so I started casting my fluke. I hooked up on a fish and it turned out to be a big ole black crappie! More to eat, score. We had released some of the pike but thankfully i had earlier convinced everyone to have another fish fry. It was tasty! 
 

 

We then took a boat tour to a lake just southeast of Rainy called Kabetogama Lake. This was pretty cool and loaded with bald eagles. There was a spot they dropped us off to explore a rock garden one man had built entirely by hand over a 20 yr span.  We also took a short walk up to a beaver pond overlook and had a frosty beverage 

 

When we returned to the rental house, I had a little free time to cast off the dock. Got a nice fat SMB that wrecked a fluke in shallow water, the locals said bass could only be caught out in deep open water. I was on cloud 9, didn’t think we had a chance at any bass 

 

This morning we had to pack up and check out but I fished off the dock for maybe 20 minutes. Caught a bass on my first throw that ripped my fluke into pieces. I had only one other lure in my pocket, trophy scum frog a la @Pat Brown

I tossed it into the grass and lightning and thunder hit, I looked upwind to see what was up. Looked back at the water and my frog was gone, turns out a little pike had it haha

caught both bass back in the little cut near the pontoon. Also saw a little velvet buck on the way in 

Now I’m just riding shotgun headed slowly back home with 3 more stops along the way. Not sure if there will be fishing but I will take pictures if there is 

[12poundbass]

Nice write up @TnRiver46!

[MIbassyaker]

What a trip!

[gim]

Never thought I'd see the day that someone would be happy catching those slimy snot rockets.  I think we found someone.

 

Usually when I pile into one there's profanity involved.

 

Were those tracks in that one photo a wolf or a bear?  It's hard to tell.

[TnRiver46]

Those pike a fun and tasty! Wolf tracks, i think it’s mainly just wolves and moose on the island, with foxes and red jimmies and beavers 

[OkobojiEagle]

My dad and I did the Isle Royale hike north to south (50 miles) back in the late 1960's.  I don't remember the island being as "civilized" as you tell.  Thanks for the travelogue, it brought back fond memories of a youthful adventure.

 

oe

[TnRiver46]

8 minutes ago, OkobojiEagle said:

My dad and I did the Isle Royale hike north to south (50 miles) back in the late 1960's.  I don't remember the island being as "civilized" as you tell.  Thanks for the travelogue, it brought back fond memories of a youthful adventure.

 

oe

Apparently it was more civilized 100 yrs ago than it is now . It was all wilderness except rock harbor from what I saw but there were lots of hikers and campers 

[Glenn]

What a great trip!!

[Mike L]

Sounds like a Great trip!

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Swamp Girl]

If you wouldn't want to paddle/travel/fish/hang with @TnRiver46, there's something wrong with you. 

[Fishlegs]

Looks like a great trip, and happy 40th b-day!

[TnRiver46]

5 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

Looks like a great trip, and happy 40th b-day!

Thanks! It’s actually in late August but you gotta get boat tickets to isle royale whenever they are available 

[Bankbeater]

You had a cool trip!  Great write up too.

[pdxfisher]

Looks like that was a fantastic trip and the write up was awesome! I love all the pictures, just so cool!!

[MIbassyaker]

On 7/28/2024 at 5:12 PM, TnRiver46 said:

 

 

Hold on -- those barred markings look almost like a tiger musky.  Could it be?

[TnRiver46]

@MIbassyaker, beats me ! 😂 

[gim]

2 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

Hold on -- those barred markings look almost like a tiger musky.  Could it be?

 

Nope.  100% snot rocket pike.

 

This is a tiger muskie.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

@gimruis, well that’s good because I couldn’t remember if we ate that one or not 😂 

 

the pic of the stringer sure looked like all pike but I didn’t even think about Muskie just based on the size 

[gim]

Technically any body of water with both northern pike and pure strain muskellunge could produce a hybrid/tiger naturally. It would be rare, but it happens.

 

The current world record is from a lake on the Wisconsin/Michigan border that was never stocked with them. It’s a naturally produced one. Lac Vieux Desert in 1919, a 51 pound, 2 ounce behemoth.

[MIbassyaker]

I was curious because the vertical barring pattern jumped out at me -- I don't see that on any of the snot rockets I catch, even the really small ones.  Could be something as simple as regional variation.