kypaddler,

People don't catch fish in November, either.

I had been living in MN less than a year back in 2001.  We had Indian Summer down in the Twin Cities so I decided to work in one last trip - a solo trip - to a lake somewhat near the perimeter of the BWCA.  My destination was Lake Polly.

I never got there.

It was the end of the first week of November.  I arrived late and parked my car near the entry at Kawishiwi Lake and set up camp there.  Though is was only just 5pm it was nearly pitch black darkness already.  Nevertheless, I got in several casts from shore before giving it up and fixing my supper.  Didn't get a bite then.  Didn't get a bite that entire short trip.

After a LONG cold night, I awoke the next morning (if you could call it that) and it was still pitch-black.  It was foggier than hell, to boot.  However, even before I fixed my coffee, I decided to see if my fishing luck had changed.  So, I went back to the very spot I had been casting from the evening before... and a strange thing happened.

My lure sailed through the air - unseen by me - with predictable smoothness, like normal.  However, instead of "kerplunk", what I heard was more of a whizzing/skidding noise.  Unbeknownst to me, everything had frozen over during the night.  Heck, I KNEW it had been chilly that night but when I cast off, it being dark and the fog so thick, I could hardly see the end of my rod.  I had no idea it had frozen-over.  That was a real eye-opener (or, more aptly... an "ear-opener") for me.

This trip would be unlike any I had ever done before.

Though tempted to go back to bed, I instead fixed my coffee & ate a leisurely breakfast.  Eventually there was enough light that I didn't need to keep a lantern going.  However, I wasn't going anywhere.  The fog wouldn't lift.  I didn't dare venture into the woods very far for fear of losing my way back to camp!  9:00am came & went.  So did 10am, 11am...etc.  The ice wasn't so thick that my royalex canoe couldn't break it so, as it approached Noon, without breaking camp, I decided to go out & test the waters of Kawishiwi Lake.

I didn't have a GPS in those days... not that they are much good in heavy fog, anyway (I found that out just three weeks ago on big Pickerel Lake in Quetico!).  Therefore I kept to the shoreline or, at least, what I could barely see of it.  That was the first and only time I have ever paddled in that area.  Never have I been out in such heavy fog!

The ONLY thing that became clear was that I would be going nowhere that day.  Well, maybe not the "only" thing.  It soon became evident I could do as well "fishing" in some contaminated chemical waste pit in the vicinity of Newark, NJ.  There was nothing doing, not even the hint of a bite.

Around about 2:00pm as I slowly edged my way back to my Kawishiwi Lake camp I thought I saw something on the shoreline through a rent in the mists.  It was very white and about the size of a smallish dog.  At first, it seemed like it was stealthily oozing along and around the boulders.  At other times it seemed to "hopping" (sort of) over big roots and ledges.  Every time I got closer to investigate, it faded off into the woods.  Two or three minutes later, it would reappear at the shoreline, almost like it was taunting me.  This kept on going for about 12-15 minutes.

I never did determine what the danged thing was.  At the time I thought it was possibly a snowshoe hare or, maybe, a lynx.  Over the years, I've pretty much decided it must have been a lynx but I really don't know.

By 4:00pm it was getting quite dark, again.  The fog never really lifted much.  Fishing?  WHAT fishing?  Having a line in the water was worthless. 

I considered my options.  That process didn't consume much time.  NO way I was going to break camp and head to Polly.  The notion was growing on me that I might have to smash my way through ice in order to get back!  Besides, I had doubts I could even find Lake Polly in this fog.  Who knew if the mists were going to lift tomorrow or even the next day?  Finally, it was really beginning to register with me just how MUCH less daylight there is here at this time of year versus what I enjoyed on summer trips.

Live and learn.

It might be Indian Summer back in the Cities but prospects of cold, dark fishless camps in the BWCA in November sure seemed to suck.

I stayed one more night and then went home to Indian Summer.

Short trip!  Lesson learned. 

Jimbo   8-)