Our party also entered the Man Chain from Silver Falls. We found the portages to be rather wet, especially the exit from Fran and the last portage into Other Man Lake. The water/mud was more than knee deep on this last portage - be careful to step ON the wood in the path. Stepping to the side of the wood results in a miring to knee or thigh level depending on the weight on your shoulders. We found walking sticks to be useful for balance and for probing ahead. The other portages aren't long, but some are very steep (we're getting old). Each successive lake to Other Man is UP from the previous.
Fishing in mid-July was terrible by our usual Quetico standards. We caught few smallmouth, no walleye, and a few decent sized northerns. We started with old stand-by soft plastics that never before failed us (4" zoom lizards), then started throwing everything we had. Fishing was mostly dependent on wind - if it wasn't blowing, we caught a few fish. Even the mid-lake reefs were devoid of sizable fish at any depth. Terry and Dottie had 1 very good evening with no wind experience using Pop R's but that was the only "Quetico fishing experience" of the entire trip.
We usually depend on fish for food - this year, we ate a lot of jerky, dried soups, and clever concoctions.
The scenery is the usual Quetico spectacular - Other Man is especially pretty.
We still had an enjoyable and exciting adventure, especially finding our hitchhiker, but I doubt we'll go this way again, unless somebody can prove to us the fishing is worth the effort (again).

Posted by Skip Guyer on September 09, 1999 at 17:59