Boundary Waters, Minn - 6/1/2007

For years I have thought about a smallmouth bass trip to the legendary Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness in Northern Minnesota. After meeting Jim Blauch at a fly fishing show in Minneapolis, I was hooked and booked. We picked June as that is when the bass are super aggressive to fly rod poppers.

With three buddies from Oregon, we arrived in Ely, Minnesota, met Jim and his guide Chris Parthun and started making a game plan for the upcoming week. Jim thought we should paddle like maniacs for two days and then fish for three days from a base camp, way back in the wilderness.

After 20 hours of paddling and portaging we set up our camp and started hammering smallmouth bass on poppers. On the rocky shoreline we found the bass and in the grass we found northern pike. A short paddle and portage from camp put us on another lake with both smallmouth and largemouth bass, some up to 5 pounds.

Our weather was very nice and the rumors of mosquitoes and black flies were just that. I know the bugs can be an issue, but on our week we were spared. The scenery was as good as the fishing. The camp food, prepared by Jim and Chris was great. Fresh fish fillets were my favorite.

I highly recommend this trip. As out of state anglers, going with Jim and Chris made our trip 100 percent more fun, interesting, safe and productive. Check out: www.moosetrackadventures.com.