Apostle Islands Overnight

[crooked knife]

So a couple weekends ago a friend and I decided we were going to camp out on one of the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior and fish for two days.  Being that he only had the weekend and fishing was our quest we made the best of it with snow machine and toboggan.  Most of my longer planned trips this year were canceled either because of other folks backing out or unexpected job issues that required me being in contact.  Life I guess.  So we made the best of it and headed out onto Lake Superior for a little adventure.  Another friend and I were just talking and figure that dealing with Lake Superior ice is a little like being an inland eskimo.  Since ice is a very changing ordeal out there, knowing where ice gets thin and were to worry about ice sheets blowing out to sea can leave a knot in ones stomach.  Since an unexpected trip to Canada's North shore via an ice burg would not be a fun prospect.  Lots of folks every year here end up with snow machines, atvs and trucks at the bottom of the big lake, and occasionally a body as well along with it. 

The fishing could have been better, pretty slow though we did end up with lake trout, coho salmon, lake herring and whitefish.  It was beatiful weather and didn't really warm up much past the lower 20's which was nice.  The island we camped on had ice up to one side and open water on the other.  The sound the ice chunks made grinding against shore in the water left an odd feeling when out on an island in winter.  And you can see that in one of the photos, open water that is.  Since you can't get close to the Islands legally with a snow machine we loaded up the toboggan and just put right on top of the komatik.  This is an awesome system for those who want to get out far in a short amount of time and then pull into more tight spaces and leave the easily snowmachine excessable places behind.  So there you have it.  Here are some of the photos from that trip, wish I had taken some more.










Joe E

[Soledad]

Nice pics-  At least we don't have to guess which lake you were fishing on!    Got anymore trips planned?  I think this past weekend was my last until May. 

[Clovishunter]

Looks like a real nice area to camp, thanks for sharing
-cheers

[HOOP]

Hi Crookedknife,

VERY NICE!   Looks like fabulous conditions you had.   One thing about the big lakes is that they often have that windblown packed snow, or little snow for easy going and no slush.

I hope to do a north shore Lake Superior trip one winter soon when there is a good ice year (it was bad this year). 

The snowmobile ingress method is great.  I have done those.  (Had one planned for this  week up north, but had to cancel due to the extreme meltdown and rain). 

Did you eat the herring and whitefish?  I have never prepared those species before, so am interested in how you clean them and cook them.  Does the whitefish have a bone structure like rest of the salmonids?  (technically the same family).  Do you clean them the same way and cut out that strip of bones above the rib cage?     

[crooked knife]

Yea, we're heading up to the Gunflint this weekend for some Lake Trout fishin but that will be at a cabin with friends, so I'm not so sure how many more toboggan trips are in the works for this season with the warm up.  Today is almost 50 outside!!!  I feel ripped off this winter, just wasn't a lot of cold, though we are currently at 100 inches of snow for the winter (not that that means much now with it all melting away).  We tapped our sugar bush this weekend and so are now at the mercy of a cold snap that stops the trees in order to have a chance to get out again, but I have hopes anyways. 

Yes, Lake Superior almost always has wind packed ice with very little snow until you get near shore.  And a lot of times it just blows it out to the open water.  Sometimes along the pressure ridges that pop up it can be real wet though.  Lake herring and whitefish are very similiar to the salmon as far as bone structure goes.  Most of the time we just bake ours, so we just lop the head off, gut it and throw it in the oven or we wrap it in foil and put it on the woodstove.  You can always pan fry it too when it is whole, which we do as well.  The skin is so thick it's easy to just peel off once done, then we just pull off the meat with our fingers to expose the back bone and ribs.  Then you just grab the back bone and pull it out completely, it'll take all the rest of the little bones with it.  Then if you want to throw all that meat in a soup you can do it after baking.  It's better then filleting since you end up loosing a lot of meat when you fillet white fish because of the thick bones.  On Lake Superior there are days when you come home with 20 pounds of whitefish.  If they are biting and you find where the schools are hanging out it can be a blast.  Same with the herring, there have been days when a school swims under you and you look down the hole and all you see is fish and they'll swim by for 20 minutes, just thousands of them.  Fascinating!

Joe E

[cousin Pete]

Nice report!  GReat pictures! 

Take care,
Cousin Pete

[moosebreath]

Yea, we're heading up to the Gunflint this weekend for some Lake Trout fishin but that will be at a cabin with friends, so I'm not so sure how many more toboggan trips are in the works for this season with the warm up.  Today is almost 50 outside!!!  I feel ripped off this winter, just wasn't a lot of cold, though we are currently at 100 inches of snow for the winter (not that that means much now with it all melting away).  We tapped our sugar bush this weekend and so are now at the mercy of a cold snap that stops the trees in order to have a chance to get out again, but I have hopes anyways. 

Yes, Lake Superior almost always has wind packed ice with very little snow until you get near shore.  And a lot of times it just blows it out to the open water.  Sometimes along the pressure ridges that pop up it can be real wet though.  Lake herring and whitefish are very similiar to the salmon as far as bone structure goes.  Most of the time we just bake ours, so we just lop the head off, gut it and throw it in the oven or we wrap it in foil and put it on the woodstove.  You can always pan fry it too when it is whole, which we do as well.  The skin is so thick it's easy to just peel off once done, then we just pull off the meat with our fingers to expose the back bone and ribs.  Then you just grab the back bone and pull it out completely, it'll take all the rest of the little bones with it.  Then if you want to throw all that meat in a soup you can do it after baking.  It's better then filleting since you end up loosing a lot of meat when you fillet white fish because of the thick bones.  On Lake Superior there are days when you come home with 20 pounds of whitefish.  If they are biting and you find where the schools are hanging out it can be a blast.  Same with the herring, there have been days when a school swims under you and you look down the hole and all you see is fish and they'll swim by for 20 minutes, just thousands of them.  Fascinating!

Joe E

Very cool there crooked knife   Goode luck on your next adventure and say hi for me to the "Big Lake They Call Gitchigummi"