The Raycraft Trip

This was a great trip with Craig and Pam Raycraft and their two sons Bryan and Nicolas. We caught a lot of quality fish. Craig and Nicolas were the fishermen in the group, while Pam enjoyed the scenery and wildlife.  Bryan is somewhat of a daredevil and spent some time jumping off 20 foot tall cliffs into the crisp clean waters of Crooked Lake and scaling a 30 foot cliff near the campsite. I must admit I was both worried about him and envious of his fearless nature.

Day 1

This trip started the way I like it with sunshine and in the 70’s. We made it to the lower Basswood Falls area by 11:30 am. When we were checking out the pictographs on the shear cliffs of Crooked Lake and I was pointing out the individual paintings, I heard Craig shouting in the direction of the cliffs, “Deer! Deer! Deer!” I didn’t see anything until he pointed at a pile of boulders at the bottom of the cliffs surrounded by water where there was a pair of ears peeking out from behind a boulder. When I back paddled to get a better look, we saw a fawn hidden behind a boulder where its mother left it for safe keeping. At first I was astonished, but after thinking about it, what better place to hide your baby than behind a pile of boulders at the bottom of a large cliff that is a quarter mile swim from shore.  Now that’s a good mother! Along the way to the bay areas, we had an otter check us out. When we reached the area, we got one of the prime campsites. We set up camp and some of the boys went out fishing. Nicolas caught a 17” Smallie and his first Walleye, and Craig caught a 30” Northern. What a day! We traveled 20 miles and seven portages. We saw otters, eagles, loons, beavers, deer, turtles and caught Walleyes, Smallie and Northerns. At night we had an owl hooting right in camp. It was a great start to the trip!

Day 2

What a gorgeous day! It was 80 to 85 degrees, partly cloudy and the winds were variable. We planned on a long day of fishing and we ended up fishing for 9.5 hours. At one point I pulled over and started to set up a small shore lunch.  I looked over and was in disbelief when I saw Bryan climb to the top of a 20’ cliff and jump off! 

The fishing started off slow but picked up rapidly after lunch. Later in the day I picked up fish from Craig and Nicolas. Nicolas caught 4 Walleyes in 4 casts. I gathered the fish and started trolling back to the camp, where I cleaned up the fish. Shortly after, Craig and Nicolas arrived at the campsite. We were a little concerned that Pam and Bryan were still out. We decided to go looking for them so I pulled my binoculars out and started glassing the area.  I saw a faint object coming into the bay from Canada. It was Pam and Bryan, so we all paddled over to them. They said they were lost and accidentally left the bay and ended up in Canada. All was okay. By the time this long day was over we caught Walleyes, quite a few Smallies between 17 and 18”, some Northerns, and had a feast of a fish fry.

Day 3

We were fishing early but the fish were not cooperating until I hooked onto a monster Northern. I could tell this was a massive fish and I wasn’t worried until I saw it up close. I have caught many monster pike but when I pulled this fish off the bottom and saw that it was the largest Northern I have ever seen I realized that once again, I was alone and had a fish that I couldn’t possibly bring into the canoe.  This fish was 45” and pushing 30 pounds! For the first time in my career I was scared, I saw the rest of the group about 200 yards away and started to yell, “I need help!!!” They could hear me yelling but they just thought it was just another fish. When I made my move to grab the fish she was just 2 feet from the canoe and she opened her jaws and the lure just sprang out of her. That’s when I realized that she wasn’t even hooked her jaws were just clamped down on the lure. I usually don’t get worked up over a lost fish but this was the largest Northern I had ever seen and after a brief case of depression, I was back at it.

While I was cooking lunch we had two rangers come into camp checking our permits and the campsite. They said they were impressed with our campsite and that they were glad to see a group that knew what they were doing. The rangers then gave us a weather report and it wasn‘t good! There was a lot of rain in the forecast. After lunch Pam and Bryan stayed around camp while me, Craig and Nicolas hit the bay. The fishing was much better in the afternoon. I caught 5 Walleyes and 4 Northerns.  Nicolas caught his largest Northern, a 34” dandy, and Craig caught his largest walleye, a big 26 incher, among a dozen other fish. We were all very happy!!! We were fishing late and I slowly made my way back to the north end of the bay but Craig and Nicolas were running late. I waited, but the sun was dropping fast. Finally, I could see a small beacon in the distance. It was Nicolas with his head lamp on, and I let out a sigh of relief. By the time we made it to camp the bug hour had started and they were out in full force. I hurried and pumped some water while Nicolas was flailing his arms and doing a little dance to keep the bugs away.  While I was securing camp I looked over at Nicolas as he pumped his water. He was wearing underwear on his head!  I laughed and said " I can't believe you are wearing your underwear on your head!"  Nicolas replied, “I’m not… they’re my brothers dirty underwear.” I was laughing hysterically. We ran to the tents and slept early. What a day!!!

Day 4

We were up early and we knew rain was coming.  We had a fast breakfast and were on our way by 8:09 AM, just in time for the down pour and a lightening show that would make most people hide. Not this group though! We trudged on through the storm even though it was coming down so hard that we had to pull over and empty the water out of the canoes. The one thing that kept us going was the knowledge that we only had a 2 hour paddle. Of course, when we reached the 4 star campsite the rain stopped. Once we had camp set up and ate lunch the rain returned. Pam & Craig relaxed in their tent while Bryan & Nicolas played cards in theirs.  I was relaxing in my tent, making some entries in my journal and listening to the boys playing cards, laughing like brothers do. It reminded me of being with my brothers and sister when we were younger and I laid there listening and smiling.  I heard Nicolas unzip the tent, jump out, and say to his brother, “Come on brother, we might only get one chance to do this…lets go!”  I smiled and thought about how that is  a great way to approach not only a trip of this magnitude, but life in general. I had a big smile stretched across my face as I heard them jump into the canoe and take off.

Day 5

We struggled through an all day wind but we still managed to reach the truck in 5 hours. 

This was quite the trip! The Raycrafts were all naturals with adventure in their genes. The thing that stood out the most about this family is their closeness.  I always hear about the youths in this country who have no respect or care for their fellow man and it was refreshing to see the exact opposite with this family.  These were two great boys with two caring parents that have done an excellent job of raising them.

Now that the season is in full swing, we will be featuring trip reports every month. Since we have very busy schedule the newsletter might be sent to our readers on an erratic schedule. It will be sent within the first week of every month.   New slideshows later as well.
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Ramsey Dowgiallo