Day two here at Bowman Island Lodge in Ontario on the north end of Lake Superior began at 6 AM with a coffee followed by a big Canadian breakfast of French Toast and bacon. Jerry Darkes helped his guys rig for coaster brook trout and showed them how to run the boats (remember this is a self-guided outfit). Joe Wolthuis and I packed lunch, water and beer for a full day. We figured we’d be out fishing for about 12 hours. Off we went around 7:30 AM.
Lake Superior is one of the largest lakes in the world. Its basically a small ocean. A guy with a nickname of “Monsoon Currier” could never imagine the massive water body in a calm state. But I didn’t have too. Most of today this giant inland sea was eerily dead calm. Conditions meant easy traveling in our 16ft Lund with a 30 HP. And safe for that matter. Joe took us on a 45 minute ride to a far away creek mouth where he slayed fish last year.
While everything looked perfect when we arrived, we’d fish here for an hour with only one bite. Frequently, when lakes are overly calm, fish spook easily. Often fish hear the boat coming, or become alarmed by the waves delivered when you arrive in the boat. Heavy weight colored sinking fly lines can be an issue too. They smack the water hard and create shadows. I fished my SA Clear Camo line with a long 15ft 0X Fluoro leader in an attempt to be stealthy. That one strike turned out to be about a 16” coaster brook trout.
I liked my rig. I had the same flies as last night, a chartreus and white jig fly size 6 and a black bugger five feet up as a dropper. Joe ran us to a few different spots and we slowly drifted. Each spot my point fly kept catching the silvery colored lake-welling brook trout. The fly worked like magic. While average catch rates in a day are about five coasters, by late morning I had ten.
Joe was fishing what worked well for him last year. But conditions were cold and windy on the 2022 trip. He had a faster sinking line in action with a short leader and a large white bunny type fly. While he managed a fish on this rig, he eventually switched to his Clear line and put on two flies. Honestly, just like I say in my “Streamer” presentations, this is my favorite streamer line anywhere and it really makes a difference.
The big coaster brook trout of the day came around 1 PM. The way we do this is we drift along close to shore and cast to drop offs, protruding gravel bars and boulders. Most fish eat in less than 6 feet deep water. This 22” coaster hit my fly the second it landed on top of a submerged boulder. The “speckled trout” as the Canadiens like to call them, put on an amazing fight.
Not only are the coaster brook trout making a come back from near extinction 40 years ago, but so are the Lake Superior lake trout. Jerry has been doing this trip for years and catches them on occasion when casting for brookies. He’s been here for a couple weeks and did some jigging for them with big lures last week and caught a 20lber. While I was controlling the boat for Joe to cast shallow, I launched a size 2 chartreuse and white Clouser to the opposite side of the boat in deeper water on my SA Triple Density S3/S5/S7. It was a good idea and I landed a good number of solid lake trout including this one that we didn’t measure but had to have been near 30”.
If you’ve never fly fished for lake trout and get the opportunity to do so – do it. Don’t listen to the know-it-alls that say lakers don’t fight. I’ve put these folks on the witness stand more than once and the truth comes out. Either they really haven’t caught one, or the one they caught came trolling with downriggers. They are one of North America’s top game fish for their cunningness, beauty, immense size and there ability to put a serious bend in any rod!
Cocktail hour at the lodge is at 7 PM with dinner around 8. Gary was coincidentally serving fresh lake trout he caught yesterday. Joe and I were mighty thirsty and hungry as we reeled it in at our last stop of the day. But then a lousy thing happened. Joe pulled the cord to start the motor and it broke. The cord re-coiled back inside the motor and we had no luck putting it back together. Time to wait for the rescue team.
My phone is always off when fishing internationally. Joe uses his but had no signal. We thought not a big deal being that when we missed cocktail hour the guys at the lodge would suspect motor trouble and begin the search. But they didn’t come running at 7:05.
Lucky for us, we were only about three miles away. In fact, we could see the Anica Lee at the lodge dock in the distance. We stared that direction waiting to see the rescue team but one hour, two hours, three hours and no one came. Soon it was 10 PM.
Justly, the lack of a rescue made sense. The guys saw Joe and I skip dinner and head out fishing last night till dark. No doubt, they assumed we were doing the same. Fortunate for us it was calm and at 10 PM Joe paddled us to a nearby beach that has an old fishing shack just in case we had to spend the night. At the time it was just starting to get cold.
When we got to the far point Joe tried his phone again. Miraculously he got a signal and texted Jerry describing our location and asked for a rescue. Jerry got it and replied, “On our way”.
It was nearly dark now and the concern was them finding us. We collected driftwood and built a fire so they could see. Soon we saw the guys on the way and by 10:30 we were towing the boat back.
We walked in the lodge at 11 PM. Our twelve hour day was extended to a 15. That’s a beauty – kind of like my old Henry’s Fork Marathon. Furthermore, today was my best fishing day of 2023. Incredible in fact! After sharing stories from our day over a cold beer, Gary heated up the laker dinner and it was delicious. I suspect we’ll sleep good tonight!
Classic! Glad you made it back. What a memorable day!