August was a stellar month.  Two great trips are highlighted here…

The first, Art and Matt Mikola are a great father/son team.  Art (the father) has a passion for fly fishing so we targeted Smallies and Northerns.  I met Art at Ultimate Fishing Show while he was working the fly fishing demonstrations for his club.

This trip was a shorter one than I usually prefer but as it turns out they really lucked out.  It was four days packed with adventure. It wasn’t long before we got into the fish and we found a little island we now call Bass Bitten Island. We were catching 15” Smallies that had scars on them from what seemed to be some sort of Giant Northern that gets their kick torturing Smallies.  

We were fishing the big bay when I saw what I thought was a fish marker and what turned out to be a weather balloon complete with a data recorder, balloon and parachute. The tag had instructions that if found it to mail it to the U.S government.  It also said that it reached 17 miles above the earth before making its descent.  The last night we enjoyed our nightly campfire and retired to the tent but not before watching the Northern lights.

On our way out, we enjoyed a beautiful day and no wind. We were on the water only one hour and looked over into a bay and saw an object that shouldn’t be there. It turned out to be a bull moose.  We snuck up on it and get within 30 yards and took a bunch of photos before it ran off into the forest. We were pretty excited, slappin’ high five and Matt declared this trip complete.

The Gray/ Hector group

This group has obviously have known each other for many years. There were 3 men, two of which broke our previous age records.  

Charlie, Tom and Matt are all men with much experience in the outdoors.

I met Charlie and Tom at the shows last year.  They were helping with the fly fishing demonstration as well.  Matt is an avid outdoorsman and hunter.  The first evening Tom fished the shoreline hitting every tree and boulder while I paddled him into position. He caught 8 or 9 Smallies on a pop’r including a 17 incher.  The top water action was pretty good this evening. After a campfire we fell asleep listening to the loons singing all night.

Everybody woke shortly after they heard the coffee brewing.  What a wonderful morning, it was beautiful, sunny and warm. We were all excited, had breakfast and broke camp. The plan that day was to pack up and go to the pictographs then head directly over to the bottle portage and make it to camp early afternoon. We accomplish all this by 1:00 PM.  Although we didn’t get the campsite I wanted, we discovered a little used campsite that ended up having a view that could not be matched.  When the full moon was right over the bay, it was truly spectacular!

We hit the hump this evening and once again it produced some very large fish. I caught a 20 ½ inch Smallie and a 32 inch northern the others catch a few large Smallies.  It was not at a fast pace but the fish were large.  I hooked a large Northern right under the canoe then came to find out that it was only stealing a 10 inch Smallie that I had caught earlier.

The next day we planned to check out Curtain Falls and fish our way back.  The group was impressed with the falls and Charlie said I must get great satisfaction from bringing people out here.  I told him he is right.

The fishing was slow but we knew we’d catch fish on the hump that evening. We were right… Charlie and I are catching some very impressive Smallies-  many 19” and some 20”.  Tom had one on that jumped 3 feet in the air right next to him that spit the hook right out.  It was a 20+ inches.

This was a good way to end the trip… the fishing was good and it was another spectacular evening.  We all sat around camp a little later than usual talking about the trip.

The group decided to head all the way out the next morning which would be 18 miles and 8 portages.  I must admit, I had my doubts.  I believe they wanted to test themselves and they did!  We had head winds the whole way including on Lake Agnes and Nina Moose.  But they succeeded and in just 8 hours which is pretty good.  I know younger men that are in decent shape that wouldn’t do what these men accomplished.

Look forward to seeing you all again soon. 

Please check out the slide show from the August trips... Click the image below!

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Ramsey Dowgiallo