Last day of vacation and it’s the day we had a guide take Michelle, Jon, Caleb, Trent, and myself to Basswood Lake. Kirk and Sally were going to take all the girls into town for shopping and lunch. Basswood Lake is a motorized portion of the Boundary Waters. In order to get to it, we had to portage two fishing boats twice. So you drive the hitched boats to the entry point, get them in the water, drive them to land, carry them across the land, drive the boats across another lake to more land, carry the boats across that land, and then just like that we’re in Basswood Lake. It was alot of work and I have the bruises to prove it. But honestly it was well worth it.
I caught my first walleye. After years and years of fishing in Minnesota I finally got one! In the background is Rob, our guide. He was alot of fun and is reeeeally into fishing, so he’s got the perfect job.
The Brightwell’s boat. Caleb had a fantastic time and it was from 7 am to 4:30 pm and he did great the whole day considering fishing means alot of waiting.
He also deemed himself the official net man. Whenever Jon or Michelle caught a fish, he pulled them in.
We fished until 1:30 and then Rob took us to an island for a shore lunch. Meaning he cleans all the fish we caught and cooks some of them for us and then we take the rest home with us. He earns his keep because, well, we caught some fish.
This is the fish Trent and I caught.
Rob cooking up shore lunch.
Our fish all battered up over potatoes with polish sausage. Healthy, no. Delicious, YES YES YES!
It was oh so good….
Even Caleb liked it and he pretty much just eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Rob cleans all the fish on the shore and throws the fish carcass near the water. He says that once we get back into the boats the seagulls will all stampede the shore to get the fish bones.
Once we were all back in the boats, we waited to watch the birds come. Only it was a bald eagle (right in front of the big rock). He went right to the fish and put it in his claws and munched away. It was like watching the nature channel live, so much fun.
Trent tried to get as close as he could to get a good picture, but then the eagle flew away with the fish in his feet. Immediately after the eagle left, a vulture gladly took it’s place, along with another bald eagle. We were fascinated (and happily full). Now we get to have to do the whole carrying the boats back thing, it felt shorter this time around…but I did get more bruises. I now have a collection of bruises on my thigh that reminds me of my fun Basswood Lake adventures.
That night for dinner was “please just eat as many leftovers as you can so we don’t have to pack them or throw anything away” night. Trent and I were still full until around 9 pm. It was such a fun day, probably my favorite of all the days in Minnesota.
1 comment:
Though the tops of my knees are still burnt from sitting in the boat it was a great day - and you caught 8 fish!! That was awesome - you definitely had the 'hot hand' as Dad would say.
My favorite part was probably the bald eagles - but the incredible shore lunch that Rob made was a close second!
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