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NEW YORK, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
OUTDOORS
A Paradise Found In The Minnesota Wilderness
By Howell Raines
Over the years, I have learned the hard
way that from the standpoint of the fly fisherman, not all wilderness
outfitters are created equal. So when I got ready for a long-anticipated
trip into the Quetico/Superior wilderness, I took some care in choosing
among the firms located in the town of Ely, Minnesota (pop.3,600) near the
Canadian Border.
I figure I had my man when John Schiefelbein interrupted my string of
questions with a request. "Tell me exactly what you want to do on this trip.
What is your top priority?"
"That's easy," I said. "We want to catch smallmouth bass on fly rods."
"Do you mind working to get to your fish?" Schiefelbein said, explaining
that portages of up to a half mile or more may separate many of the 2,700
lakes in the Superior National Forest of northern Minnesota and the
adjoining Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.
"That's not a problem," I said with the assurance of a middle-aged desk
jockey who has a 17-year-old son to carry his canoe.
"Then I will send you to the best place in
the world," said Schiefelbein.
And maybe he did. Certainly, our 11-day trip into the area of Lac La Croix
and Crooked Lake, the two big bodies of water along the border with Ontario,
produced fishing so exceptional it may have ruined us for our usual haunts
on the Potomac, Shenandoah, and Rappahannock river systems in Virginia.
It is possible to get a lot of bad information about fishing tackle for this
area, which is known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Most guidebooks
recommend seven- and eight-weight fly rods. My son Jeffrey and I had these
for windy days and throwing big streamers for northern pike. But we
preferred our delicate five-weight rods, which were especially fine when
smallmouth were slurping the tiny poppers that were designed for bluegills.
In general, deer hair bugs out fished cork. In streamers, Clouser's Deep
Minnow in the brownish-red sculpin color pattern was best, but I would not
go without a good supply of Wooly Buggers.
 We also disregarded the advise to take spinning tackle in the 10- to
20-pound range. We fished ultralight rods and four- and six-pound lines with
great success. Even when heavy spinner baits for northerns or trolling for
lake trout, we managed with slightly stiffer rods and eight-pound line.
Surprisingly, fly fishing is in its infancy hereabouts, and given
meat-fishing ethos, it is still considered effete by some natives.
Schiefelbein is an exception.
"I think we have some of the best freshwater fishing in the United States if
you consider quality and number of species," he said. He listed northern
pike, walleye, smallmouth and largemouth bass, lake trout, crappie,
bluegill, yellow perch, and brook trout. "And a few muskies," added his wife
Kathy.
The Schiefelbein's, both former IBM marketing executives, founded North
Country Canoe Outfitters (474 Kawishiwi Trail, Ely, MN 55731; (800)
552-5581) in 1984 when they tired of the corporate grind in Kansas City.
They specialize in tailoring trips to the specific interests of their
clients, be they bird watchers, photographers, canoeists, or fishermen.
It should be noted that there are many reputable outfitters in Ely. A call
to the Ely Chamber of Commerce will bring a deluge of brochures. But I was
drawn to Schiefelbein's approach to planning fishing trips. He is one of a
few outfitters to make annual scouting trips to check on new campsites and
fishing spots. He keeps an exhaustive computer listing of the best places
and provides maps with the fishing areas marked by species.
Canoe camping is not for everyone. At dusk every day, I was reminded of the
warning of my neighbor Joe Perpich, who grew-up in nearby Hibbing, Minn.,
that the state bird of Minnesota is the mosquito. Nor is it the cheapest
thing you can do. Our outfitting bill for two people (including 11-days of
food and equipment, two night's accommodations at Schiefelbein's base, our
float plane flight into one of the more remote reaches of Quetico Park), came to
$1,500.
[Complete outfitting for a 5-day trip
non-flying, however, runs about $395/person prior to applicable
discounts.]
But as the balm of
wilderness flowed over me, I was reminded of W.B. Yeats' description of the
lake at Innisfree as a place where "peace comes dropping slow." So it comes,
too, in the lakes of the north country, and the appeal is not entirely
fishing.
For my son and me, these were days of
profound companionability. In the evenings, I had the pleasure of watching
Sam Clemens work his magic as Jeffrey plunged into the copy of Huckleberry
Finn I had packed for him. His flashlight shone far into the night.
At such moments, I allowed myself a bit of
self-congratulation for giving him a chance to discover this book in a place
where it is still possible to glimpse the untamed continent that Clemens
knew. In all this -- our nation's greatest yarn, the Ojibwa spirit drawings
upon the rocks, the moose among the lily pads, the brown fish falling from
our fingers into the darkness of their home waters -- were memories a man
might carry at the center of his heart for years, for a lifetime, perhaps. |
