# Fishing in Minnesota



## AdmiralD7S

Well, I'm not sure that anyone missed us. But, just in case you did, Jenni and I just got back from a week of fishing in the extreme north of Minnesota, near the town of Orr. Thought I'd share my trip with you all. If you weren't looking for a documentary-type post, this is your chance to move along  I plan to divide this up into several posts that will probably be picture-heavy, so stick with me here for a bit...

We drove the Outback out, stopping at several places along the way. First was a winery about 40 minutes south of Indianapolis. Although somewhat confusing to get to if you believe the dummy-box (GPS), it was an aesthetically-appealing setup.

Here you can see Jenni (and her mostly-mobile leg) in front of the winery.









They had a lovely garden area all around the front of their buildings.





































They had a large selection of wine, including dries, semi-dries, sweets, honey mead, and several ports. I really only like semi-sweet and sweet wines. Jenni prefers the dry stuff, but she drinks from both ends of the spectrum. She says she's open-minded, and I say she's a drunk 

They offered 8 tastings for $5, so we got a pair of those and shared 16 samples over an hour. As always, there were several wines that we didn't care for, but most were good. Unfortunately, we have around 20 bottles on hand beyond what we bottled ourselves, so we decided before the trip that we would only buy wines that were the very best. We got our current stash of "external" wines by buying wines that were pretty good, and unfortunately some have not stored as well as others. In the end, though we enjoyed the experience, we decided to leave with memories rather than tangible goodies.

Next up, the Japanese gardens in Rockford, Illinois...


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## *Andi

Sounds like a great time and I love the pictures!


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## AdmiralD7S

The start of the second day saw us at Anderson's Japanese gardens. If you believe their website, they're regarded as the "most-authentic Japanese garden in America." Not having been to Japan, I can only take their word for it, but I will say it was both peaceful and beautiful.

Rather than inundate you with the hundreds of pictures we took of the place, please enjoy a representative sample. If they persuade you to visit, tell the folks there I sent you; maybe they'll send me a finder's fee...

Main stream flowing through the property. 








The stream leads to a large pond that is apparently inhabited by droves of goldfish and turtles.















The craftsmanship of the bridge is really quite remarkable. I've always been a fan of wooden bridges, so this definitely got my attention.








Lots of butterflies flying around.








There were also many statues around the place.















One of the buildings and one of the gates (with me in it).















If you get a chance to make it to Rockford, I highly recommend that you head out for a couple hours, especially if you can be there right when they open. Towards the end, some of the caricature tourists were arriving and ruining my zen.

At this point, you're probably wondering why a thread titled "Minnesota Fishing Trip" doesn't have any fishing content. Hang in there, we've got a quick stop off at the Paul Bunyan lumbar camp in Wisconsin, and then we're off to the middle of nowhere where loons rule the day and mosquitoes rule the night.


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## AdmiralD7S

"Good news, everyone...!" (read it in Prof. Farnsworth's voice). I apparently didn't take any pictures of the Paul Bunyan camp in Wisconsin, so have a public-domain photo google found for me.









It's not an incredibly exciting place, so I don't necessarily recommend taking a significant detour to go see it. However, we didn't know that before we showed up, and (as it turns out), it was placed about right for a good leg stretch. The museum will take you about 20 minutes to go through, and the outdoor buildings another 30.

Really, it's just a preservation/recreation of a standard lumber camp...there are many of them in other states (especially the northeast areas of the country). Despite that, it was still fun to go through because who doesn't fantasize about living that lifestyle (remembering, of course, that fantasies usually don't require much work)? I think it was $6/adult, so not an expensive stop off. There's a Dairy Queen just off the grounds by the main road that will suck your wallet dry on a hot day if you have too much money.

On to the fishing (tomorrow, when I've had some sleep...)!


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## AdmiralD7S

On to the fishing! This place is out in about the middle of nowhere. We drove through Duluth and on to a town called Cook. We stop there at a store called Zups, which is a small convenience store. We pick up the bulk of our groceries there, as well as our fishing licenses. The perishables go in the coolers, the rest in plastic totes. We sneak across the road to fill up on gas and nab the bait. This year we started off with a dozen night crawlers. Just before leaving town, we called the camp's satellite phone. No one ever answers, but we left a message that we were on our way. They have everyone call at Zups because its about 90 minutes out, so they a heads-up that we're coming (you'll see why shortly).

About 25 minutes from Cook is a small town called Orr. It has a small gas station and convenience store, a general store, a mom-and-pop diner, several bait/fishing shops, and an attorney (because apparently fishermen sue other fisherman, I guess).








Two miles north of this town, cell phone coverage goes away. I don't mean "it's only the edge network" or "it's the ancient GMRS network." I mean that there is literally no service. A 30 minute drive along paved roads gives way to a 40-minute drive along gravel and dirt roads that can (and did) become heavily wash-boarded.

Around the middle of the washboard roads is Vermilion Falls. You can't see them without taking a hike up a trail, and we didn't want to do that with Jenni since she still had plenty of hiking to get to the cabin. However, you can hear them from the bridge.






















At the end of the network of forest roads, we arrived at the parking lot - a small clearing. There is a 3/8 mile hike through the forest to get to the access dock. Remember where we called ahead when we were at Zups? Well, if everything's gone routinely, the solo worker Steve will be waiting in the parking lot on a 4-wheeler with a trailer or two. Otherwise, you have to wait for him to show or carry everything down yourself. The trail is fairly rugged, with lots of ups and downs, rocks jutting out, and ruts and holes all over. We wait for Steve.

We load what we brought into the utility trailers. We pack under clothes for the week and outer clothes for 4 days. I have yet to hear a fish complain that we smell bad. We also pack in our own toiletries, towels, food, medical gear, fishing gear, and all pillows/blankets/linens. It takes about 4 totes and a cooler, with the fishing gear and pillows/blankets separately. This covers us, and my parents had their own equivalent load of plates totes. It takes a trailer for each couple.

At the bottom of the trail is the access dock. It's a public dock open to anyone and everyone, although it was built by an individual with land on the lake.








The ATV and trailers are driven onto a barge and we waddle our way off to the cabins, which I'll get to next.


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## AdmiralD7S

And off to the cabins we go! Sorry for slow updates on this...spending my evenings processing stuff from the garden...stupid garden(er).

There are 5 cabins. We used to stay at #4, but 2009 is the last year we were able to get up there. Since then, a new owner has made cabin #4 Steve's personal cabin as well as the office. This place only has the 4 cabins available for rental, so sometimes you're at the mercy of what's available.

I'll detail cabin #6, as this was our main cabin. Here you can see the outside. I'm sure I don't have to point out to this crowd the two propane torpedoes. Inside, the lights, wall heaters, stove, and fridge/freezer all run off propane. There is also a generator, but on this particular cabin, the only thing it runs is a single power outlet. We ran the generator for 2 minutes the first day, and then never turned it on again.















This is a 90-degree panorama of the inside of the cabin. The front porch is at the head of the bed. It has a table for 4 in the center, with the kitchen area in the "back." Across from the fridge is a doorway to a small bedroom with bunks similar to that in the main room. Also, although I don't have a picture of it, the windows on the right overlook the lake.








The kitchen with its stove and a sink. Note that there is no faucet. In fact, this cabin has no running water at all. The forestry service requires there to be septic service if there's running water in the building. However, the cabin sits below the septic system that services all the other cabins, and there's no where to run new septic except the lake. So, the solution is to just stop the water outside the cabin.








This is the only bedroom for #6. A pair of simple bunks adorns the room. Yes, those are economy mattresses...very economy, if you get my drift.








This is where the water makes it to, about 25 feet short of the cabin. There's a large nozzle on the ground for large volumes of water (like filling a stock pot) and a small green hose for small volumes behind the tree for things like washing your hands).








At this point, you're probably wondering where folks go to do their business. While there are plenty of trees and pine cones around, there is an outhouse. Even though it's an outhouse, it is, in fact, the nicest outhouse I've seen. Fairly roomy up top, fairly deep down below, and a spray can of "what died in here" to help cleanse the nasal. After the first day, this is as close as I got to it.


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## HardCider

And most importantly, where are all the fish pictures


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## LincTex

I was fishing up in Angle Inlet, MN 7 years ago - 
the water was so clear, you could see the fish swimming 20 feet down under the boat!


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## AdmiralD7S

HardCider said:


> And most importantly, where are all the fish pictures


Fishing doesn't actually mean that fish are caught...just that you're holding a rod while sitting in a boat on a lake 

Actually, the fishing this year was hands-down better than it's ever been before! Hopefully I'll get this finished out in the next day or two. Getting things caught up after being gone three weeks, and preparing for another 3-week trip coming up


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## Woody

What were the goldfish/Koi biting on at the Japanese garden? Any size to them? How many did you get?


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## AdmiralD7S

Woody said:


> What were the goldfish/Koi biting on at the Japanese garden? Any size to them? How many did you get?


We did pretty well with oat crumbles. Couple had good size, but most were only 6-8". We got a few keepers before they took our poles, but they didn't find my scuba knife


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## lovetogrow

Nice Pics - looks relaxing and peaceful :2thumb:


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## Woody

AdmiralD7S said:


> We did pretty well with oat crumbles. Couple had good size, but most were only 6-8". We got a few keepers before they took our poles, but they didn't find my scuba knife


I was at a corporate HQ one time in White Plains, NY. BIG circle of building with a park and large pond in the middle of them. Went for lunch and folks were tossing bread into the pond. Went to check and there was a MESS of 24" to 30"+ brightly colored fish right there! I remember thinking: someone could have them some fun with one of those pocket fishing things, 25 yards of 10# to 12# test, a 3/0 circle hook and some bread. WHOOOOO WEEEE, what a good time for a lunch break!! That is, until the fun police would show up. I would have let them all go though, I didn't see a cleaning table anywhere.


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## AdmiralD7S

Okay, back at this!

So, the last was cabin #6. Paired with this is #7, which is a new cabin built up the hill about 100 feet.








This is just inside the front door. The right side is a shower area, and the center door (left in the picture) is a bathroom and small sink.






















To the left of the shower and bathroom doors is the main living area. There's a propane fridge/freezer on the far left, a sink (this one with running water!), and a propane stove. The screen door leads out to the back porch, which leads to the main part of the lake. The couch is a foldout with bars of steel near the surface for your comfort.








Above the bathroom and shower room is a 2-person sleeping loft. It was pretty neat. However, this was Jenni's and my cabin for sleeping, and she couldn't get up there with her leg. Since the foldout couch sucked, we ended up throwing the two mattresses down on the main floor and sleeping there.







You notice the door between the breezeway and the main room? That's because the bathroom and shower are shared with cabin #6. That's why they pair these cabins together for the price of one. If they ever get a septic system into #6, then #7 (this one) will be a stand-alone for a couple.

This is the view of our end of a finger of the lake from #7's back porch. Lots of water out there, and we hardly ever see another boat, even though there are 2-3 other groups in the other cabins.


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## AdmiralD7S

"Damnit, son...get to the fishing already!"

Up there, trolling is a certain way to catch northerns. At least, it was until this year. For whatever reason, they're weren't biting much at all. It may have been the time of the year when they lose their teeth. This was one of the few we caught, and he's on the smaller size. If it hadn't been so early on in the week, I'd have kept him.








The only walleye we caught, and Jenni did it while fishing straight down for bass. The walleye were also very sparse this year.








One of the smallmouth I caught early on in the week. It was a 14", which in years past would be a pretty good fish for us.








This year, a 14" was one of the smaller ones. This is my dad and I holding a stringer of everyone's catch from the morning of about the 5th day. The 18" on the right is mine, then a pair of 17"ers from Mom an Jenni, and then a couple 16" from Dad, plus a 15" on the far left.


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## AdmiralD7S

I will note that there were other things besides fishing up there. Just boating around was fun.








This is a river between our lake and the next. It's wide and fairly deep, but this year the weeds grew up very high, so we had to raise the motor and go slowly. What normally is an 8-9 minute trip was a full 20-25 minutes this year.








We did get to see all the local wildlife. Just right of the center of the picture near the shoreline is a beaver. We're about 40 yards off, give or take. He swam up to the bank, shook himself off, crawled around a minute, farted like a biker after a bowl of beans and a glass of prune juice, and then flopped back into the lake. Simply majestic!








Hard to see here, but left-center just above the trees is a crane. The river between lakes winds back and forth. We started him at once corner, and he flew over the next bend, and so we'd startle him again our next time over. This repeated itself about 4 times before the crane figured it out and circled around behind us.








Lilly-pad mind fields were all over the place,








Purple flowers were only in the river, but they sure were pretty.








Jenni was slow to get around, but she did manage to get most places without too many problems.








This was a spider we pulled out of #7. Didn't seem very social, but I figured he was braver at night, so I relocated him to where all the mosquitoes were.








We also found a float plane, one of the many indigenous birds up that way.


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## AdmiralD7S

I can't seem to find any pictures of the open lake, but it takes about 20 minutes to travel from our dock to the other end of our lake, 20-25 to go through the river, and another 10 minutes to get to the far end of the other lake. There's actually a second lake that connects to ours, but that way was too grown up for our boat to go through this year.

I had forgotten how peaceful it was up there. I'm hoping that our schedules will work out to head back up next year, but we'll have to see. Our wedding is next October, and Jenni will only have started her job a few months before. We're not sure if she will be allowed time off for both the vacation and then the honeymoon 2 months later.


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