Things were a little brisk here this morning at Bowman Island Lodge for May 30th. Even for the Ontario side of Lake Superior. But the sky was blue again and Joe Wolthuis and I got the pleasure of sharing another day with our trip host, Jerry Darkes.
While yesterday the three of us went exploring, today we hit some of Jerry’s standby locations. Its our last day and we wanted to end things with a few fish to the net!
We drove about 30 minutes to a place called the Green Buoy. Turns out it’s a popular place with Jerry’s folks yet this was my first time fishing or hearing about it. It consists of several shallow bars. Some as shallow as 3 ft on top. In between them were troughs to about 12 ft deep, and around the entire area was lots of deep water. It was a perfect place for just about any Lake Superior species. When we arrived one of our boats was already netting a nice lake trout.
As you would expect from the previous few days of blogs, we got into them. Lots of chunky lakers. There was hardly a time when one of the three of us weren’t hooked up to a laker. Then, out of nowhere I hooked something that acted funny. The fight wasn’t as strong as a laker and it was all head-twitching on the surface. I caught a very nice lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis). Not to be confused with the mountain whitefish. Similar but different species.
While we were hammering away having a blast catching fish at Green Buoy, in the distance we watched seagulls plucking things off the surface. It turns out it was a mayfly hatch and we headed over. There were no fish rising and the area didn’t look like it would be productive. The water was off-color and it was 6 ft deep forever. But we knew with mayflies hatching that fish could be around so we gave it a go.
Sure enough, this would be one of our best moves of the week. I kicked things off with a 23” coaster brook trout. Unreal! Then Joe followed through with a nice one and Jerry as well. Long story short, we spent most of our day rotating from this area back to the Green Buoy and back. I’ll bet we caught ten more lakers, a half dozen nice coaster brookies and strangely, I caught four more whitefish and no one else did. The way I retrieve my fly I guess?
At around 5 PM we started our way back to the lodge. However, we had to pass one of my favorite lake trout haunts. The lone rock with a flat next to deep water. We fished here from about 5:15 till almost 7 and absolutely destroyed another dozen or so lakers. A great way to end the trip.
This wraps up a great few days with a phenomenal group of new friends and old. Tomorrow we head home and for me, two months of travel come to an end. When you look at my blogs back to April 7, you’ll see a day in Bangkok, adventures in Bhutan, Colombia and now a super few days here in Ontario Canada. It’s been a wild run and I feel like the luckiest guy alive.
Once I get home and rested up, it will be time to fish Wisconsin. I can hardly wait to get on the rivers and lakes around Hayward with Granny and friends. That’s all for spring adventures 2024!
Brookies, Lakers, and now whitefish! I think i am liking this Bowman Lodge place!
You are the luckiest guy I know!! But we all know to get to this point it came from lots of work as well. Enjoy your time at home and rest up those body parts. Picking dates for Bhutan now but still deciding on comfy lodge or river camping float…. thanks for adding adventures to my list.
You are the luckiest guy I know!!! But we also know it took a lot of courage & work to make your luck! Enjoy your time at home and rest those body parts. Picking dates for Bhutan now.. deciding on comfy lodge or river camping float??..tough choice.. Thanks for adding adventures to my list!
No doubt about it Lance. If you haven’t decided on which Bhutan trip by the Denver Show we can sit down and go over the options. An amazing trip either way. And unless you’re doing it before 2026, I may go with!