Back on the River with the Yooper Lodge
The Yooper Lodge and I were able to get out for an evening of trout fishing, reliving some cherished time growing up as we spent many hours traversing our home river in chase of the beautiful Rainbow, Brook, and Brown trout. It was a blessing growing up within riding distance of some good trout streams, it certainly kept us out of trouble and busy from spring to fall. The river is never the same but still so familiar over 40 years of adventures.
This adventure led us to find a downed willow tree that the beaver have used to stop up the flow, creating deep holes, mucky bottoms, and trapping spring run Brown and Steelhead from their retreat back to Lake Superior. The surprise of the day? The last fish caught was a yellow perch out of a deep hole. Very odd and rare to see these in the river — the last I can recall catching was many moons ago.
We waded expecting Rainbow and Browns and searching for Brook Trout. To our surprise, Brook trout were prevalent, the Browns were abundant, and the Rainbow were actually the fewest and farthest between casts. Along the couple miles we waded and fished we flushed multiple woodcock, saw and caught some really nice fish, and definitely fished water that only we had fished in the spring — there were no signs of humans, which was a beautiful thing. In the wet sand there were signs of coyotes, raccoons, and deer, including fawns.
It was another great night spent on the river, falling back into being a kid again. Over 40 fish landed, many more missed or lost, not enough pictures, tons more memories added to the memory bank. Life is good when you get out on the river! Oh yeah, and a couple brought home to fry up!
