Hey guys I just thought I would post this story on the main forum for all to read since I had it posted on the Manitoba thread and the guys seemed to like it. There are pictures posted on the Manitoba thread for you to look at too if you want. So here you go..............
After allot of debating with myself about where I wanted to go last weekend I finally decided to go on a solo winter camping trip into Birse Lake. I really would have liked to take the family but with the crappy weather in the forecast I knew that it was better if I just went alone since there will be nicer weekends in the near future. Of course this was around 6:30 Saturday morning so I asked Allison if she could make me some peanut butter sandwiches for the trip while I hurried up and got all my gear together and loaded into the truck. Once I was loaded up I kissed the wife and kids good by and headed off for a weekend of solitude in the wilderness.
The roads were pretty good going into the park since it is sheltered along most of the highway. Upon arriving at Birse lake trail I realized I had forgotten my peanut butter sandwiches that Allison so graciously made for me, oh well at least she doesn’t have to make lunch for the kids now. I just hoped I would catch a few fish for supper. After I got the sled and Bravo all loaded up I was off to Birse Lake, which we finally made it into last Wednesday after a couple misadventures. The fishing was a little slow Wednesday with a few pike caught and a couple whitefish lost at the hole. But I was hoping it would be a little better this weekend, although with the projected forecast I was expecting too much.
When I turned off the main trail onto the trail leading into Birse I saw some extremely fresh moose tracks on the trail. About five yards up the trail I saw a big fist sized clump of moose hair which I thought was kind of odd but there was a low over hanging Jack Pine limb that I assumed must have scraped the moose’s back. A little further up the trail at a beaver flood there were a couple more clumps of hair, this time I stopped to investigate and I realized a pack of wolves where in hot pursuit of the moose. All of this must have happened within the past hour or two, I contemplated following the moose tracks to see if I might be able to scavenge a few fresh moose steaks. But since there is no blood at all at the scene I know they could be a long ways off by now and decided to just get out on the lake to start fishing.
I wanted to try the point where we lost a couple of whitefish last Wednesday first thing in the morning but as I slowed down where we had drilled our holes I felt the snowmobile sink into some slush. I sped up to get out of the slush and when I looked back I saw my trail filling in with water. I quickly decided it would be better to fish at this location tomorrow morning instead of filling the track up with slush first thing and having to possibly deal with a froze up track tomorrow when I wake up.
I decided to just go fish were I had planed on setting up camp for the weekend. I chose to set up camp off of an island that provided shelter from the easterly winds that where suppose to be fairly strong throughout the weekend. I also wanted to set up camp there because I was hoping to get some burbot fishing in at nightfall and I figured this was an ideal location since it was a very steep drop off which went down to 50+’ within 50 yards of shore. I drilled about 15 holes in a straight line out from shore to the deep water and decided to fish for a hour or so before I started to set up camp. I started fishing in the deeper water without marking anything then I moved into about 40’ of water and I marked a fish right on bottom that would come up every couple of minutes to check out my minnow. I fooled around with the little bugger for about 10 minutes until he finally bit, I got him up about 20‘ but he got off which wasn’t too bad since I didn’t think it was any bigger than my minnow.
After about 45 minutes without any more bites I decided to start piling snow for my quinzee. Once I got about three quarters of the snow piled I drilled a hole on the edge of the pile so I could fish at night sheltered from the elements. I then continued to pile snow till I had about a nine foot diameter pile about five feet high. Once the “snow pile” was complete I gathered wood for the fire, the island had a fire on it last summer and there was no shortage of nice dry wood and it only took me about twenty minutes to gather more than enough wood for a fire this evening and tomorrow morning.
I gathered up my fishing equipment and headed off to try some other locations to catch a few pike for supper and breakfast. I decided to try the creek mouth on the south east side of the lake basin for some pike and possibly a few perch. I fished there for about two hours and drilled close to twenty holes and only caught a little 4” perch by 2:30. By now I was getting pretty desperate to catch at least one half decent size pike for supper, so I decide to try the creek mouth on the west side of the lake for the rest of the day.
On the drive over to the other creek mouth I passed a reed patch out in the middle of some open water and decided to try here for a few minutes since I was already there. I didn’t have my line in for more than a couple minutes when a little 20” pike hammered my jig and minnow. At least I had caught my supper now and I wouldn’t have to dream about my peanut butter sandwiches sitting on the counter. I fished there for about another 30 minutes and managed to ice one more nice 25” pike, now that I had my supper for sure I headed over to the creek mouth.
I drilled a series of holes right down the middle of the inlet, the water in this inlet wasn’t clear like the rest of the lake it on the other hand was a dark tea color which is common on a lot of the shield lakes. I set up my rod first and proceeded to put my tip-up out, when I looked up at my rod I saw the tip very gently moving up and down. I ran over to the rod and grabbed it out of the holder to set the hook. I could feel some decent weight on the end of my line and could tell it wasn’t a pike due to the slow but steady runs the fish was making. I played the fish for a couple of minutes and landed a nice 23 inch walleye, after a couple of quick pictures I released it since it was over the 16” slot size which is to bad because I could already taste it as I pulled its head up the hole. I fished in that inlet for about twenty more minutes and decide I better get back over to my campsite to dig out my quinzee because I wanted to get it done before dark.
Back at my campsite I set my rods back up and went to work on digging out my quinzee. I started removing the snow from the top and worked my way down to help prevent it from collapsing from being top heavy, which is a trick I learned from several failed attempts in the past. Once I got to where I drilled my hole I noticed that the water level was perfectly level with the top of the ice created a bit of “wet” snow on the floor. I started thinking that maybe drilling a hole inside my shelter wasn’t such a good idea but it turned out to not be to bad. Once I had the ceiling thinned down to where I could just start to see light through it I crawled inside to make sure I had enough room to sleep. It turns out I just made it just big enough since by head almost touched one end and my feet where right at the door at the other end.
By now it was starting to get dark so I decided to build a fire to get my supper going because I was starting to feel pretty hungry. As luck would have it I found a granola bar in my coveralls from Wednesday that I never ate, so I gobbled that up while I built by fire. It didn’t take long to get the fire crackling using some nice dry balsam boughs and the waxed birch bark I always carry with me. Once the kindling caught fire I throw on some larger logs and started to clean my supper. I decided to just fillet the pike and leave the bones in. I didn’t want to waste any of the meat because I was pretty hungry and I wanted to make sure I had enough for breakfast also. Once the fish was clean and the fire burned down nicely I put on a pot of water for tea and got the frying pan set up.
While I waited for the oil to heat up I decided to light the lantern and place it inside the quinzee to melt the ceiling a little bit. This helps set the snow and make it so snow crystals are falling all over every time you accidentally touch it.
After making one quick round of checking my rod and tip up with the vex I started to cook my supper. Within five minutes I was eating fresh fried pike fillets and sipping on a nice warm cup of tea just waiting for the burbot bite to start…….and I waited……..and waited……..and waited. I started to think there probably isn’t any burbot in the lake even though it is a fairly deep lake with lots of water over 30 plus feet. I decide to move into the quinzee to fish while I set up my sleeping bag. After trying to get set up in my somewhat cramped sleeping quarters I decided to pull my line out of the water and just call it a day with the fishing. I made one last round out side to check on my tip-up and make sure all my equipment was together so I didn’t loose anything if it snowed over night. I then crawled into my new home for a good nights sleep. I was surprised that I only woke up twice throughout the night and I never found it the least bit cold, I think a lot of that had to do with my new foam-sleeping pad.
When I woke up the next morning I got dressed and opened my “door” to be greeted by five inches of fresh powder snow. As I crawled out of my quinze I stood up and looked around and when I looked back towards the island I saw my flag was up. I ran over to the tip up and it wasn’t spinning so I lifted it up and gave the line a little tug sure enough I felt it tug back. After hand lining about 70 yards of line back in I was happy to see a nice 28 inch pike come up the hole. Only five more to go. After resetting the tip up I decide to just put another tip-up out and forget about the rod this morning.
I proceeded to relight my fire, which didn’t take very long and shortly after my tea was boiling and I warmed up my left over fish. After breakfast I pulled one of the tip ups out and tried to catch a couple whitefish or maybe another walleye on the rod but the vex wasn’t marking a thing. After about thirty minutes with no action I decided to pack up camp and head over to the point where we had some bites last Wednesday.
I knew that there was a bit of slush around there from yesterday morning so I decided to park 50yds out and walk into the point instead of packing the track up with slush. The slush was a lot worse today due to all the extra snow we received the over night. I couldn’t believe it as there is close to ten inches of water under the snow and I could immediately feel the cool water seeping in through my boots so I backed off and decide to just go and give Osis Lake a shot.
I decided to go and fish off the point where we fished several weeks ago with pretty decent luck. Once I drilled my holes, I set out a tip-up and started fishing the other holes with my rod. I started to mark perch right away although they weren’t overly aggressive but I managed to hook a few of them. After landing one about six inches I decided to hook it up to my quick strike rig on my tip-up. They were biting really lightly and I was probably losing two fish for every one I brought up. Then a “perch” slammed by little jigging rapala and as I pulled it up the hole it turned into a little 12 inch pike. Just as the pike was about to clear the hole my line snapped from little guy inhaling my hook, with my lightning quick reflexes I grabbed him just as he was heading back down the hole with my jigging rap. I would have really hated to lose a $6 lure to that little thing. After that things really slowed down and I decided to try a couple of other spots for a few minutes but they weren’t any better so I went back to my original spot since I knew we had luck there before.
It was around 1:30 when I missed a perch that stole my minnow and just as I was lowering my jig back down the hole a nice pike hammered my jig only a few feet below the ice. After a short battle I had a decent 27 inch pike on the ice. I quickly decided to bring my tip-up from the bottom and placed it only a few feet below the ice. As soon as I got back to my rod I turned around and saw my flag was up. I ran over there and it was spinning so I lifted it out of the hole and set the hook. Once again a nice mid 20’s pike was flopping on the ice. The action stayed pretty consistent for the next hour and a half with the pike and the perch both biting but most of the perch were little males so I just throw them back. At about 3:40 my flag went of again and I iced pike number six and decided to pack it in for the day and get home while it was still light out as I knew Allison would probably be worrying a little if I waited till dark.
In all it was a great weekend, I won’t be able to get out this weekend due to my scheduled knee surgery this Thursday but I plan on getting out with the family one of these weekends in March for a family camping trip. I just hope the slush doesn’t get too bad by then.
