Star Tribune Feature - Fishing Report

An outdoor columnist for the Star Tribune, Dennis Anderson, recently visited Rockwood Lodge & Outfitters. During his stay, Joe took Dennis and another fishing friend of the Trail, Bob Nasby, out fishing for walleye on Swamp Lake and fly fishing on Poplar.

Dennis wrote an article about the experience and it ran in the Sunday Star Tribune, dated July 5. The article can be found here:

http://www.startribune.com/telling-a-tale-along-the-gunflint-trail/311648881/

The fishing reports coming in off Poplar and nearby lakes in the Boundary Waters have been excellent. Topwater action for smallmouth has been stunning, with many 18 and 19-inch fish being caught on Poplar.

And the summer is just getting started!

Moose at Rockwood!

Many of our guests are reporting seeing moose while paddling the Boundary Waters. One family came in from their trip and told us that they saw eight different moose, all from the same campsite. The best news is that we are getting sighting reports of cows with twin calves from different lakes! Twin calves are a sign that the area can support a larger moose population.

This photo of a moose was taken less than a mile from Rockwood Lodge in a small pond located just off the Gunflint Trail. In other words, you don't always have to paddle miles into the Boundary Waters to see a moose!

First Visitors -- Early May

The ice came off Poplar Lake late Saturday.  Joe and Maggie were here to help us start getting the cabins ready for guests. That evening after work they went out for a drive and encountered a large bear.  As luck would have it, their camera was back in the cabin. Later that night Maggie had a unexpected guest pay them a visit. A large bull moose walked within 6 feet of their cabin and checked them out! Once again, the shock of seeing a large animal up close chased away all thoughts about taking a picture.

The first human visitors to show up this season were not interested in paddling, camping or staying in a cabin. However, they did manage to paddle around a couple of the islands out on Poplar Lake before they departed. They were working on a short film about Rockwood Lodge and they are probably the first people to ever fly a drone over Rockwood Bay. We hope that they got a great shot along our frontage and we now have a new story to pass along.

Our first cabin and bunkhouse guests are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I plan on turning the water system on today. I still need to get the sign along the Trail painted and put back up so that they can find us.
                                                                      

Finally, Spring Thaw



Rockwood Bay       April 27, 2015



The ice is starting to disappear of Poplar Lake! Overnight the open water refreezes but it opens again a little earlier every day.  Best of all, the distance to the ice pack from the shore is increasing daily!



Joe and Maggie are returning this year and should be here this weekend to help us with "Spring Cleaning". It will be only few more days before I get brave enough to turn the water on to the cabins so we will have to haul water to the cabins. I still remember when one of our friends turned the water on at their resort and froze everything. It took three weeks before they got all of their cabins up and running. 





Channel Between Cabin #9 and Island



It really looks like we'll get to have fishermen here this year for "Opener Weekend." Last year the ice was still on parts of Poplar Lake until May 18th. Joe is planning on going trout fishing the first day that the fishing season opens. By Memorial Day Weekend he have lots of recommendations on where to fish -- based on first hand experience. I haven't told him that I plan to leave him here at the Lodge while I spend some time fishing for Lake Trout up on Seagull Lake with some friends.



    



Retirement is Over

Daffodils and Crocuses popping up through the last traces of snow are a sure sign that Winter is almost over for people who live where winter is a little less intense. When you live  along the Gunflint Trail you know that Sping is near when the snow level starts to drop and aluminum canoes start to show. Lin and I are starting to get everything ready for "opener" this week. Progress will be slow until the snow is gone --  then it becomes a rush to get everything ready before our guest start to arrive.

Some of our new outfitting supplies have already arrived: tents, sleeping pads, cook sets and sleeping bags. Eight new kevlar canoes, paddles, griddles and water filters have been ordered and should be here soon. Our driveway and the path down to our house are both still covered with ice. The delivery service drivers can not get back out if they drive down to our house. Instead, they leave packages for us to find and never come down to tell us that a delivery has been made. So far we have found some sleeping bags in the pickup bed, cook sets in the back seat of the car and inside the shop, packages hanging off the mail box and fry pans next to the shop door.  When the driveway clears the driver will leave the packages outside the Lodge door or on the covered porch at Outfitting.