006: Caribou Lake

This week we talk in depth about Caribou Lake and its portages, campsites, and fishing opportunities.  We also answer some questions about the history of the lake and tell the story of the one and only time Erik and Adam capsized a canoe on purpose. Show Notes: Caribou Lake Campsite Reviews Minnesota Historical Aerial Photography […]

The post Tumblehome: A Boundary Waters Podcast – Episode 006: Caribou Lake appeared first on Clearwater Outfitters.

Episode Transcript

[0:00:27 – 0:00:32] Adam: All right, welcome to episode 6 of Tumble Home, a Boundary Waters podcast.
[0:00:32 – 0:00:35] Adam: I’m Adam, and I’m here with my good friend, Eric.
[0:00:35 – 0:00:37] Adam: Hey, 006.
[0:00:38 – 0:00:39] Adam: Really making progress here.
[0:00:40 – 0:00:41] Adam: Yeah.
[0:00:41 – 0:00:46] Adam: This episode and all our episodes are brought to you by Clearwater Historic Lodge, a great place.
[0:00:47 – 0:00:47] Adam: You should check it out.
[0:00:48 – 0:00:49] Adam: Also by PBR.
[0:00:49 – 0:00:50] Adam: Call us up, PBR.
[0:00:50 – 0:00:54] Adam: We have 945 episodes to go, at least.
[0:00:54 – 0:00:55] Adam: And we are thirsty.
[0:00:55 – 0:00:56] Adam: So get in on the ground floor.
[0:00:56 – 0:00:56] Erik: Yep.
[0:00:57 – 0:00:58] Adam: Let’s make a deal.
[0:00:58 – 0:01:00] Erik: Let’s make a deal, PBR.
[0:01:00 – 0:01:06] Adam: Today on Tumble Home, we are moving to the east and checking out our good friend, Caribou Lake.
[0:01:07 – 0:01:14] Adam: And we are talking, of course, about the Caribou Lake near Clearwater and not the lesser Caribou Lake near Poplar Lake.
[0:01:14 – 0:01:15] Adam: I’m just kidding.
[0:01:15 – 0:01:16] Adam: That’s a great lake, too.
[0:01:16 – 0:01:16] Adam: They’re both fine.
[0:01:16 – 0:01:17] Adam: It’s not as good as this one.
[0:01:18 – 0:01:19] Erik: But there are two different lakes.
[0:01:20 – 0:01:24] Adam: There’s two Caribou Lakes, and they’re very close together, so it can be confusing, so…
[0:01:24 – 0:01:37] Erik: Which, you know, over the course of the CCS or whatever naming lakes, I mean, they’re like 10 miles apart.
[0:01:37 – 0:01:40] Adam: Yeah, and also there’s no caribou left up here.
[0:01:41 – 0:01:43] Erik: Yeah, maybe there was that many caribou back in the day.
[0:01:43 – 0:01:47] Erik: They were like, well, there’s so many caribou, we should probably name two lakes after them.
[0:01:47 – 0:01:50] Adam: There’s only one moose lake I know of, and there’s still moose around.
[0:01:50 – 0:01:51] Erik: Is there even a wolf lake?
[0:01:52 – 0:01:53] Erik: They were probably hated back in the day.
[0:01:53 – 0:01:55] Adam: No, yeah.
[0:01:55 – 0:01:57] Adam: Basically, we’d be calling it Devil Lake.
[0:01:57 – 0:01:58] Adam: It’s a devil lake.
[0:01:59 – 0:02:01] Adam: Animal we shall not speak of lake.
[0:02:01 – 0:02:03] Adam: There is devil’s track, though.
[0:02:03 – 0:02:04] Adam: Yeah, and devil fish.
[0:02:04 – 0:02:05] Erik: And devil fish.
[0:02:05 – 0:02:07] Erik: I wonder what devil fish was back in the day.
[0:02:07 – 0:02:08] Adam: It’s a wolf.
[0:02:08 – 0:02:08] Erik: Ah.
[0:02:09 – 0:02:09] Adam: Yeah.
[0:02:09 – 0:02:12] Adam: Even on land, it was devil fish.
[0:02:12 – 0:02:13] Adam: Dang wolves.
[0:02:13 – 0:02:14] Adam: Dang wolves.
[0:02:14 – 0:02:21] Adam: So, yes, we were talking about Caribou Lake, which you can reach by two portages from Clearwater Lake.
[0:02:21 – 0:02:22] Adam: Eric, you’ve been up here a while.
[0:02:23 – 0:02:26] Adam: What’s the first thing you think of when people ask you about Caribou Lake?
[0:02:27 – 0:02:29] Adam: It’s got to be a question you hear almost every day.
[0:02:30 – 0:02:34] Erik: Yeah, no, it is a question that I get quite often.
[0:02:34 – 0:02:36] Erik: We’re heading to Caribou.
[0:02:36 – 0:02:37] Erik: What do you know about Caribou?
[0:02:38 – 0:02:50] Erik: You know, first thoughts on Caribou, man, if it was just like I woke up out of a dead sleep and it was like Caribou Lake, I think the first thing that I would think of would probably be like huge bass.
[0:02:51 – 0:02:52] Adam: Yeah, it’s got very nice smallies.
[0:02:53 – 0:02:55] Adam: Like incredible.
[0:02:55 – 0:03:06] Erik: Yeah, based on other people’s experiences, I’ve been in there when it was like just constant 20 plus inch bass, which sounds crazy.
[0:03:06 – 0:03:10] Adam: It seems like when I think of it, it’s like this is a really good fishing lake.
[0:03:11 – 0:03:12] Adam: Nothing on Clearwater.
[0:03:12 – 0:03:17] Adam: Like you can catch a lake trout as big as your canoe in this lake, but few people have.
[0:03:17 – 0:03:24] Adam: And it’s honestly not that great of a fishing lake, especially in the summertime when the Lakers are all down at 120 feet.
[0:03:24 – 0:03:26] Adam: It’s very hard to fish them out of a canoe.
[0:03:26 – 0:03:28] Erik: They’re there, but they’re not really there.
[0:03:28 – 0:03:31] Erik: Whereas like, yeah, when people are here, like, hey, we really want to fish.
[0:03:31 – 0:03:36] Adam: Well, it’s worth your effort to take the portage over to Caribou because it’s a lot shallower.
[0:03:36 – 0:03:39] Adam: It’s just generally better fishing because it’s not a lake trout lake.
[0:03:40 – 0:03:40] Adam: Right.
[0:03:40 – 0:03:48] Adam: And these, you know, pike and walleye and smallmouth bass are a little more susceptible to the MEP spinner or the little Cleo or what have you.
[0:03:49 – 0:03:58] Erik: Yeah, in my experience, the big bass are typically been found on the Gary Yamamoto worms.
[0:03:58 – 0:04:01] Adam: Oh, yes, and the soft worms and soft plastics.
[0:04:02 – 0:04:03] Adam: That’s deadly back there.
[0:04:03 – 0:04:03] Erik: Deadly.
[0:04:04 – 0:04:09] Erik: And not to get too into fishing right off the bat, but, you know, it is…
[0:04:11 – 0:04:14] Erik: I don’t know, about three miles long, the lake.
[0:04:14 – 0:04:14] Erik: Three and a half.
[0:04:14 – 0:04:15] Adam: A little over three miles.
[0:04:15 – 0:04:17] Adam: Kind of like two lakes in one.
[0:04:17 – 0:04:25] Adam: You have a little saddle slash narrows about two-thirds of the way down if we’re going west to east on your radio dial.
[0:04:25 – 0:04:29] Adam: And, yeah, six campsites, all of which are pretty respectable.
[0:04:29 – 0:04:30] Adam: Yeah.
[0:04:30 – 0:04:44] Adam: it’s just a generally really nice lake and it’s pretty easy to get to and you could do a lot worse and uh i think everybody should try and get there once it’s a as part of like many routes out of clearwater you can get there uh but uh
[0:04:45 – 0:04:49] Erik: Yeah, like you said, it was kind of like almost two lakes.
[0:04:49 – 0:04:52] Erik: It really pinches down about two-thirds of the way down in that back bay.
[0:04:53 – 0:05:03] Erik: If you’re in there, I would say before the middle of the summer, I mean, you’re going to be wanting to spend some time fishing back there.
[0:05:03 – 0:05:07] Erik: It only gets down to about, I think on the map it says 10 feet.
[0:05:07 – 0:05:13] Erik: I think it gets down to a little bit deeper than that and a couple of little holes, but I don’t even know if it gets down to like 10 feet at all.
[0:05:13 – 0:05:14] Erik: It’s pretty shallow.
[0:05:14 – 0:05:20] Erik: Um, but it is a great place to start, especially in the, uh, the spring before the weeds come up.
[0:05:21 – 0:05:26] Erik: Um, really, um, some of the best fishing in the early spring is that back.
[0:05:26 – 0:05:34] Erik: Um, when I say back, I mean that, that farther like Eastern Bay, that’s just after the pinch point, um, out of the main lake.
[0:05:34 – 0:05:39] Adam: Yeah, it’s really a go-to spot early in the year, and you can troll in there.
[0:05:40 – 0:05:41] Adam: You can drift and cast.
[0:05:41 – 0:05:43] Adam: You can throw slip bobbers.
[0:05:43 – 0:05:49] Adam: Pretty much anything, any trick you got in your arsenal, you can throw it out there, and it’s probably going to work.
[0:05:50 – 0:05:55] Adam: I remember my first summer up here, we’d go back there, and I was mainly throwing MEP spinners at the time.
[0:05:56 – 0:05:59] Adam: Yeah, sure enough, we’re catching walleye on MEP spinners.
[0:05:59 – 0:06:00] Adam: That’s ridiculous.
[0:06:00 – 0:06:00] Adam: Come on.
[0:06:01 – 0:06:02] Adam: That shouldn’t happen, but it did.
[0:06:02 – 0:06:03] Erik: Yeah, I’ve been in there.
[0:06:03 – 0:06:09] Erik: I remember one summer we were in there fishing with probably six or seven of us friends.
[0:06:10 – 0:06:13] Erik: And we were just sitting right up against shore.
[0:06:13 – 0:06:18] Erik: It was noon, calm, middle of the day, late June.
[0:06:18 – 0:06:21] Erik: And we were just throwing Mr. Twisters at a log.
[0:06:22 – 0:06:28] Erik: And it was, there’s, I have a picture where there’s like people with like six lines in the water casting at the same exact spot.
[0:06:29 – 0:06:34] Erik: And we came back with enough fish for everybody to have a, you know, a massive fish fry.
[0:06:35 – 0:06:38] Erik: And it’s not, not to say that it’s always like that, but yeah.
[0:06:39 – 0:06:46] Erik: Middle of the day in June to be catching walleyes like that is pretty, that’s the kind of lake it is.
[0:06:46 – 0:06:48] Erik: It can be amazing.
[0:06:48 – 0:06:58] Erik: I think over the last couple of years, it’s maybe slowed down a little bit, but that back bay is always a solid choice to go for early anything, especially bass.
[0:06:58 – 0:07:04] Adam: Really, like anytime somebody goes in there and they come back, you’re always like, so did you get anything big in there?
[0:07:04 – 0:07:04] Erik: Yeah.
[0:07:04 – 0:07:09] Adam: Yeah, like I’m never surprised when somebody comes back with stories of a large fish.
[0:07:09 – 0:07:13] Erik: Yeah, no, Caribou was always one of the lakes that I asked people about if they were, like, fishing in there.
[0:07:13 – 0:07:20] Erik: It’s one of the lakes that I’m most curious about if people come back and said, yeah, we set up on Caribou for a few days.
[0:07:20 – 0:07:20] Erik: We were fishing.
[0:07:20 – 0:07:24] Erik: But let’s talk about the couple of different ways that you can get in there.
[0:07:24 – 0:07:26] Adam: Yeah, let’s zoom out on the map here a little bit.
[0:07:26 – 0:07:32] Adam: And you’re mainly going to want to get to Caribou off of Entry Point 62 Clearwater and probably just take that first portage.
[0:07:34 – 0:07:34] Adam: It’s a 210.
[0:07:36 – 0:07:37] Adam: Kind of muddy.
[0:07:37 – 0:07:39] Adam: We spoke about this on the Clearwater episode.
[0:07:41 – 0:07:44] Adam: There’s a second portage out of the back bay of Clearwater.
[0:07:45 – 0:07:49] Adam: It says it’s a little shorter, but I feel like they’re about the same.
[0:07:49 – 0:07:56] Erik: Yeah, we did talk about that portage into Caribou on the last portage, how it’s got that out of Clearwater.
[0:07:56 – 0:08:00] Erik: There’s that first left, and then you want to take that next hard right.
[0:08:00 – 0:08:04] Erik: Otherwise, you’re going to end up portaging into the backside of those three campsites on Caribou.
[0:08:04 – 0:08:06] Adam: Yeah, in the old logging camp.
[0:08:06 – 0:08:07] Erik: Yeah, the old logging camp.
[0:08:07 – 0:08:09] Adam: The old logging camp.
[0:08:09 – 0:08:11] Erik: Railroad grade.
[0:08:11 – 0:08:13] Adam: You may hear a steam whistle while you sleep.
[0:08:14 – 0:08:19] Erik: Yeah, I pray do not hear the steam whistle in the middle of the sleep.
[0:08:19 – 0:08:21] Adam: The logging ghosts are upon us.
[0:08:22 – 0:08:30] Erik: Yeah, I would say the quickest way in there, just quickest, is definitely with a 62 entry point out of Clearwater.
[0:08:30 – 0:08:34] Erik: But you can also get there out of East Bearskin, entry point 64.
[0:08:36 – 0:08:44] Erik: The amount of work and rods of portages are probably roughly equal to about the portage in from 62.
[0:08:44 – 0:08:47] Erik: The paddling is much longer.
[0:08:47 – 0:08:51] Erik: If you want to put in an East Bearskin, you probably got to paddle about…
[0:08:52 – 0:09:09] Erik: two and a half miles to get down to that 115 rod portage into moon short little portage non-existent essentially into deer and then from deer it says it’s a 60 rod portage I don’t think it’s even that much it’s all straight downhill anyway but it’s you know
[0:09:10 – 0:09:10] Erik: It’s a lot more work.
[0:09:10 – 0:09:14] Erik: I would rather do one long portage than three short portages, in my opinion.
[0:09:15 – 0:09:15] Erik: Right.
[0:09:15 – 0:09:21] Adam: Or you could do some sort of weird little loop into Flower Lake if you wanted to actually do a loop.
[0:09:21 – 0:09:21] Erik: Yep.
[0:09:22 – 0:09:31] Erik: There is a portage out of that north arm of Flower Lake, but it’s hit or miss in terms of how well it is cleared.
[0:09:31 – 0:09:39] Adam: One way I have done it is to put in an East Bearskin and you paddle all the way down to the end into Alder and then Alder to Canoe.
[0:09:39 – 0:09:47] Adam: And then you take the crazy twisty portage down into Pine with a little lunch stop at Johnson Falls and then make your way up.
[0:09:47 – 0:09:54] Adam: From Pine into Little Caribou and then into the far east side of Caribou proper.
[0:09:55 – 0:09:55] Adam: Yes.
[0:09:55 – 0:09:57] Adam: And that can be a very nice loop.
[0:09:57 – 0:09:59] Adam: Like a two-night trip would be great there.
[0:09:59 – 0:10:02] Adam: You could make it into a three-night if you want to spend a little more time on Pine.
[0:10:03 – 0:10:05] Adam: But that’s a nice way.
[0:10:05 – 0:10:06] Adam: And then you could end back at Clearwater.
[0:10:07 – 0:10:10] Erik: And you can do that if you’re really gung-ho.
[0:10:10 – 0:10:13] Erik: You can do that in a day if you’re just going.
[0:10:13 – 0:10:14] Erik: Oh, yeah, no doubt.
[0:10:14 – 0:10:20] Erik: I mean, I’ve done that in a day, but that’s all you’re doing that day.
[0:10:20 – 0:10:24] Erik: You probably want to head out on a nice day, not too much wind.
[0:10:25 – 0:10:26] Erik: So yeah, that’s from the west.
[0:10:26 – 0:10:32] Erik: You got that 210 from Clearwater, three portages up from East Bearskin.
[0:10:33 – 0:10:41] Erik: Not that these are portages that you would really access the lake from to begin with, but these are two other portages out of the lake.
[0:10:41 – 0:10:44] Erik: There’s that one on the east end in that back bay that we were talking about.
[0:10:45 – 0:10:55] Erik: Actually, when we were talking about Clearwater, this was the portage we recommended, the far eastern portage because you get to experience Clearwater.
[0:10:56 – 0:10:58] Adam: More Clearwater, less mud.
[0:10:58 – 0:10:59] Erik: And then less mud.
[0:10:59 – 0:11:11] Erik: That first portage is a 210-rod flat, kind of mucky, mostly messy portage versus if you’re up for a little bit of a climb, you know.
[0:11:12 – 0:11:13] Erik: It’s hard going.
[0:11:13 – 0:11:14] Erik: Yeah, it’s much drier.
[0:11:14 – 0:11:17] Erik: And then you’re right into that back bay of Caribou.
[0:11:17 – 0:11:25] Erik: If you’re looking to camp on Caribou, probably not the best portage to take because you miss out on five out of the six campsites.
[0:11:25 – 0:11:28] Erik: But that is another portage into the lake or out of it.
[0:11:29 – 0:11:37] Erik: Say if you’re camped on caribou and you want to head up to that mountain lake portage, you can always take that last portage out of the lake and portage back into clear water.
[0:11:39 – 0:11:45] Erik: And then there’s the 25 rod portage out of caribou into little caribou, which would eventually bring you to pine.
[0:11:45 – 0:11:50] Adam: Yeah, now when you can almost just leave your stuff in the canoe and carry it.
[0:11:50 – 0:11:54] Erik: Yeah, you can almost see Little Caribou from Caribou.
[0:11:55 – 0:11:59] Erik: So you’ve got the one, two, three, four portages out of Caribou.
[0:11:59 – 0:12:07] Erik: And with all of that access and with its proximity to the edge of the park, it’s a pretty popular lake.
[0:12:08 – 0:12:14] Adam: I got to say, yeah, middle of the summer, it’s not a surprise to paddle through there and see somebody on every one of the campsites.
[0:12:14 – 0:12:15] Adam: And I’ve done that.
[0:12:15 – 0:12:23] Adam: You go through, you know, you’re not planning on staying there in July because you kind of know this, but you want to go through early in the day if you’re looking to stay.
[0:12:24 – 0:12:31] Adam: But in the fall, I’ve also gone through when there’s two-foot rollers and I’m in a solo canoe and you don’t see anybody.
[0:12:31 – 0:12:32] Adam: Yeah, when you need the help.
[0:12:32 – 0:12:35] Adam: If I would have capsized, I don’t think anybody would have come along.
[0:12:35 – 0:12:35] Adam: No.
[0:12:35 – 0:12:36] Adam: Because there’s just nobody around.
[0:12:36 – 0:12:37] Adam: Yeah.
[0:12:37 – 0:12:39] Erik: No, it’s a popular lake.
[0:12:39 – 0:12:42] Erik: It’s one of those lakes that I would say probably more than any other.
[0:12:44 – 0:12:46] Erik: I’m sitting at the front desk at Clearwater.
[0:12:46 – 0:12:49] Erik: Somebody comes in off the water earlier than I suspected them to.
[0:12:50 – 0:12:52] Erik: The reason is because they couldn’t find a campsite on Caribou Lake.
[0:12:53 – 0:12:59] Erik: And it’s really one of the only ones that I ever experienced that with other people having trouble finding a campsite.
[0:13:02 – 0:13:07] Erik: I think it’s a popular base camp trip for people to just go out and set up.
[0:13:07 – 0:13:12] Erik: I also think it’s a really popular lake for people to set up like one day before they head out.
[0:13:13 – 0:13:16] Erik: And, you know, we’re going to get to it, but we’ve kind of already touched on it.
[0:13:16 – 0:13:20] Erik: It’s a really popular and well-known fishing lake.
[0:13:20 – 0:13:24] Erik: So keep that in mind when you’re planning your trip out to Caribou, I think.
[0:13:27 – 0:13:28] Adam: Well, should we get into the campsites?
[0:13:29 – 0:13:30] Adam: There are six.
[0:13:30 – 0:13:31] Erik: There are six.
[0:13:31 – 0:13:45] Erik: And based on the last time we did Clearwater campsite reviews and going over them, yeah, that was the largest period of time that we talked the last podcast.
[0:13:45 – 0:13:46] Erik: We really like going over the campsites.
[0:13:47 – 0:13:47] Erik: It is a lot of fun.
[0:13:47 – 0:13:48] Erik: It is a lot of fun.
[0:13:48 – 0:13:52] Adam: And I think between the two of us, we’ve camped on every one of these.
[0:13:53 – 0:13:54] Erik: Yeah, I think I have camped on every site.
[0:13:54 – 0:13:56] Adam: I’ve camped on a couple of them several times.
[0:13:57 – 0:13:57] Adam: Yep.
[0:13:57 – 0:13:58] Adam: But…
[0:13:58 – 0:14:12] Erik: Yeah, the first campsite of my time up here, the first time I ever camped out on the Gunflint side was on the third campsite on Caribou, my first summer up here.
[0:14:14 – 0:14:24] Erik: So just before we get into the campsites, with regard to them, those first three on the west end, which isn’t on any map, which is kind of surprising.
[0:14:24 – 0:14:25] Erik: It’s not on any fisher map.
[0:14:25 – 0:14:26] Adam: It’s an old logging camp.
[0:14:27 – 0:14:28] Erik: The old logging camp trail.
[0:14:29 – 0:14:35] Erik: If you ever get the chance to look up old, you know, aerial photography.
[0:14:35 – 0:14:36] Adam: It’s pretty interesting.
[0:14:36 – 0:14:37] Adam: From the lake.
[0:14:37 – 0:14:37] Adam: You see that.
[0:14:38 – 0:14:39] Adam: Huge.
[0:14:39 – 0:14:40] Adam: Barns they had back there.
[0:14:40 – 0:14:41] Adam: Huge clear cut.
[0:14:41 – 0:14:41] Erik: Yeah.
[0:14:41 – 0:14:43] Erik: Where it’s like, that doesn’t seem like it should be there.
[0:14:43 – 0:14:46] Adam: Seems like it is on another planet when you’re looking at it.
[0:14:46 – 0:14:46] Adam: Yeah.
[0:14:46 – 0:14:49] Adam: That was only 50 or 100 years ago.
[0:14:49 – 0:14:53] Erik: It’s on the University of Minnesota’s historical site.
[0:14:53 – 0:15:16] Adam: yeah it’s super interesting to look at and when you do the portage like the first part’s pretty muddy and kind of twisty but then you hit this part where it’s the old grade and you can you can just kind of picture it these old like little railroad logging cart things they had set up yeah it’s nice and flat it’s almost built up so like that’s why everybody drainage yeah everybody takes that they go straight when they should go right because it’s why would i want to
[0:15:17 – 0:15:23] Erik: And start walking away from this nice flat built-up trail and go back down into this gully.
[0:15:24 – 0:15:33] Erik: But yeah, so the built-up nice flat trail runs behind and through the first, second, and third campsite on Caribou.
[0:15:33 – 0:15:38] Adam: It all basically ends up connecting into South Clearwater Road, which is the old grade.
[0:15:38 – 0:15:41] Erik: And South Clearwater Road used to be the railroad grade as well.
[0:15:41 – 0:15:44] Adam: So your first options are these first three.
[0:15:44 – 0:15:45] Adam: They’re all pretty close together.
[0:15:46 – 0:15:50] Adam: So there’s a chance you will hear or see people at the neighboring campsites.
[0:15:50 – 0:15:54] Adam: But it’s not like you’re stacked in on top of each other like some sort of RV court.
[0:15:54 – 0:15:55] Erik: No, they’re not that close.
[0:15:55 – 0:16:05] Erik: But more than people from the other campsites running into you, you stand a pretty high likelihood, especially in the summer, of somebody who’s… Portaging into your camp.
[0:16:05 – 0:16:05] Adam: Yeah.
[0:16:05 – 0:16:15] Erik: Yeah, somebody who’s missed the portage turn down to the lake and is going to end up in your campsite, especially if you’re camped at the first campsite, which let’s get into.
[0:16:16 – 0:16:21] Erik: The first campsite, you know, I think it’s a nice site.
[0:16:21 – 0:16:23] Erik: I’ve spent multiple nights here.
[0:16:23 – 0:16:28] Erik: You know, besides the layout, which I graded as an overall B,
[0:16:30 – 0:16:36] Erik: The biggest issue with it is it’s almost too close to an exit where it’s like, when would you ever want to stay here?
[0:16:36 – 0:16:41] Erik: Whether you’re getting a really late start or you’re going to finish up really early the next morning.
[0:16:42 – 0:16:43] Erik: You’re right there.
[0:16:43 – 0:16:45] Erik: You’re right next to people portaging.
[0:16:45 – 0:16:48] Erik: There’s always the potential for somebody to come walking into the back of your site.
[0:16:49 – 0:16:50] Adam: Old lager ghosts.
[0:16:51 – 0:16:54] Erik: And, yeah, there is always the potential for ghosts in these first three sites.
[0:16:54 – 0:16:56] Erik: Do not forget about the ghosts.
[0:16:58 – 0:17:04] Erik: Seriously, the only good tent pads also on this first site are on the old railroad grade.
[0:17:04 – 0:17:11] Erik: So, you know, you might wake up with, you know, somebody pounding in one of those railroad spikes right into your chest.
[0:17:12 – 0:17:12] Erik: Timber.
[0:17:12 – 0:17:14] Erik: I cannot guarantee that it won’t happen.
[0:17:14 – 0:17:15] Erik: Yeah.
[0:17:15 – 0:17:22] Erik: But the actual fire grate area and like down by the water, it’s got one of those like classic angled rocks.
[0:17:22 – 0:17:23] Erik: Perfect jumping.
[0:17:23 – 0:17:26] Erik: I’ve jumped off of this rock into the lake plenty of times.
[0:17:27 – 0:17:28] Erik: Nice jumping.
[0:17:28 – 0:17:31] Adam: Yeah, from the water, this looks really classy.
[0:17:31 – 0:17:31] Erik: Yeah.
[0:17:31 – 0:17:36] Erik: And it’s got really good walleye fishing, too, almost throughout the year.
[0:17:36 – 0:17:38] Erik: Great walleye fishing.
[0:17:38 – 0:17:42] Erik: Set the slip bobber up right off a campsite.
[0:17:42 – 0:17:45] Erik: You know, the fire grade area right down by the water is nice.
[0:17:45 – 0:17:50] Erik: It’s just I think the only downside is the, you know, having to…
[0:17:50 – 0:17:50] Erik: The proximity.
[0:17:50 – 0:17:50] Erik: Yeah.
[0:17:51 – 0:17:59] Erik: The proximity, yeah, to people portaging in, walking through the backside, and then the only really flat spots are on the trail that we were talking about.
[0:17:59 – 0:18:00] Adam: Yeah, the grade’s pretty fair, though.
[0:18:00 – 0:18:01] Adam: B overall.
[0:18:01 – 0:18:02] Erik: Yeah, solid B.
[0:18:02 – 0:18:02] Erik: Not bad.
[0:18:03 – 0:18:04] Erik: Solid B.
[0:18:05 – 0:18:08] Erik: And then these first three campsites are going to be – they’re all connected.
[0:18:08 – 0:18:11] Erik: So that can be a good thing or a bad thing.
[0:18:11 – 0:18:13] Erik: You know, I think sometimes, you know, you get a couple of campsites set up.
[0:18:13 – 0:18:15] Erik: You can maybe share, walk back and forth.
[0:18:15 – 0:18:16] Erik: Yeah.
[0:18:17 – 0:18:35] Erik: Um, not that the U S forest service would ever really like me saying this, but I always thought it would be a really fun time to get 27 people out on three separate permits and camp on the first three campsites on Caribou and just use that trail and just, you know, basically celebrate a full moon like they do in Thailand or whatever.
[0:18:35 – 0:18:35] Erik: Yeah.
[0:18:36 – 0:18:38] Erik: Uh, campsite number two.
[0:18:38 – 0:18:40] Erik: Yeah, it’s just down the, just down the way.
[0:18:40 – 0:18:45] Erik: It’s like basically right on the water, kind of the opposite of that first campsite.
[0:18:45 – 0:18:47] Erik: Um, still nice, decent landing.
[0:18:48 – 0:18:53] Erik: Um, it gets, uh, I mean, with any of these campsites on Caribou, there’s a lot of use.
[0:18:53 – 0:18:55] Erik: So you’re going to have a tough, uh,
[0:18:56 – 0:19:20] Erik: tough time finding uh you know easy easily accessible uh firewood um but i gave the the best part about this site is there is a ton of space right in the site it’s not like that first site where the only landing uh for uh not not landing but the only spot for a tent is way in the back on that uh railroad grade there’s actually nice tent pads right in the campsite
[0:19:21 – 0:19:25] Erik: and pretty decent trees right along the water for hammocks.
[0:19:25 – 0:19:28] Erik: Nothing amazing, but you could maybe make a couple work in there.
[0:19:29 – 0:19:39] Adam: Yeah, we had talked on the previous episode about possibly establishing a fourth category for hammockry, and I think this one would get high marks in that regard, possibly an A-.
[0:19:40 – 0:19:41] Adam: This is a very nice hammock spot.
[0:19:41 – 0:19:42] Erik: Yep.
[0:19:42 – 0:19:44] Erik: Pretty basic, though, I would say.
[0:19:44 – 0:19:46] Erik: Nice spot, serviceable at best.
[0:19:46 – 0:19:48] Adam: We have the hunt crawdads right there, it looks like.
[0:19:49 – 0:19:50] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:19:50 – 0:19:51] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:19:51 – 0:19:53] Erik: A little rock just a few feet out there.
[0:19:54 – 0:19:57] Erik: It might be a little too much of a slope for the cradles to come in.
[0:19:57 – 0:19:59] Erik: They kind of like the little jumbled rocks.
[0:19:59 – 0:20:02] Erik: But, yeah, easy headlamp shining.
[0:20:04 – 0:20:08] Erik: So, campsite two, we give a C plus two.
[0:20:09 – 0:20:14] Erik: I think the majority of that grade is based on the number of tent pads.
[0:20:15 – 0:20:19] Erik: Nothing special about this site, but I would say better than most.
[0:20:19 – 0:20:22] Erik: The third site, this is the first campsite I ever camped at.
[0:20:24 – 0:20:25] Erik: And it is a…
[0:20:26 – 0:20:30] Adam: I think this is the most haunted of the Western Three, I would say.
[0:20:30 – 0:20:35] Adam: This is where the old offices and barracks used to be of the logging operation.
[0:20:35 – 0:20:35] Erik: For sure.
[0:20:36 – 0:20:40] Erik: And the main reason is because it’s not right on the lake.
[0:20:41 – 0:20:44] Erik: It’s up in the woods, kind of in this grassy knoll area.
[0:20:44 – 0:20:45] Erik: So you’ve got…
[0:20:47 – 0:20:51] Erik: You’re up in the woods and the campfire is going.
[0:20:51 – 0:20:53] Erik: There’s not really like a lake right by you.
[0:20:53 – 0:20:58] Erik: There’s something about it that just feels a little cut off from the world and creepy.
[0:21:00 – 0:21:07] Erik: And besides the fact that it may or may not be haunted, there’s no access to the wind.
[0:21:07 – 0:21:09] Erik: It gets a little buggy in the summer.
[0:21:11 – 0:21:15] Erik: Though probably some of the best tent pads because it is really grassy and weedy.
[0:21:17 – 0:21:19] Erik: This is solid, I would say.
[0:21:19 – 0:21:24] Erik: I mean, I put in here that there’s three, probably almost unlimited.
[0:21:25 – 0:21:27] Erik: The campsite is basically in a field.
[0:21:27 – 0:21:31] Adam: I’ll have to admit, I’ve never been here because I am terrified of logging ghosts.
[0:21:33 – 0:21:33] Adam: As you should be.
[0:21:33 – 0:21:38] Adam: Full disclosure, I’ve just always avoided this one and never really had a reason to stop.
[0:21:38 – 0:21:42] Adam: But if you had to stop here, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
[0:21:42 – 0:21:44] Adam: And it’s kind of nice.
[0:21:44 – 0:21:48] Adam: The first three, this one’s kind of tucked back to the north and out of the way the most.
[0:21:49 – 0:21:53] Adam: So you could have a nice little private session here.
[0:21:53 – 0:21:53] Adam: It is very private.
[0:21:53 – 0:21:59] Adam: You could probably swim nude here, and nobody would give you any trouble except for the crawdads.
[0:21:59 – 0:22:01] Erik: Yeah, the landing’s a little shallow.
[0:22:01 – 0:22:05] Erik: It’s definitely not as nice as that first site where you can just jump right in.
[0:22:05 – 0:22:11] Erik: It’s going to be more of one of those wading operations, which, eh, not my favorite way to get into a lake, but…
[0:22:12 – 0:22:19] Erik: One thing that you should note, it would make an excellent winter campsite because it’s nice and protected from the wind.
[0:22:19 – 0:22:20] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:22:20 – 0:22:23] Erik: It’s got nice and flat areas to set up a nice big wall tent.
[0:22:25 – 0:22:31] Erik: And in the winter, I’m not necessarily as concerned about being right on the lake.
[0:22:31 – 0:22:35] Erik: But for me, that’s one of the reasons I camp.
[0:22:35 – 0:22:36] Adam: Being set back is nice.
[0:22:36 – 0:22:36] Adam: Yeah.
[0:22:36 – 0:22:40] Erik: But that’s one of the reasons I like camping in the Boundary Waters in the summer.
[0:22:40 – 0:22:41] Erik: I want to be on the water.
[0:22:41 – 0:22:47] Erik: If you can’t be on the water and the boundary waters, I mean, you might as well just go camp at a state park campground.
[0:22:47 – 0:22:53] Erik: But in the winter, it’s nice to be up in the woods a little bit, not have to worry about that stove melting through the ice.
[0:22:53 – 0:22:58] Erik: So campsite three, although it doesn’t really get the greatest grade at a D.
[0:22:59 – 0:23:19] Erik: from me maybe a little harsh but it might be a little harsh it’s just you know this is probably the worst site on the lake i think it very it very clearly is like um you know as especially if it’s graded against its peers it is definitely the worst relative we’ll get to deer and moon later but a d on caribou is probably a c plus on deer or moon
[0:23:20 – 0:23:20] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:23:20 – 0:23:21] Erik: Definitely.
[0:23:21 – 0:23:21] Erik: Yeah.
[0:23:21 – 0:23:23] Erik: Deer and Moon campsites we will get to later.
[0:23:23 – 0:23:29] Erik: That’ll probably be an episode that we might have to download a laugh track for.
[0:23:29 – 0:23:29] Erik: Yes.
[0:23:30 – 0:23:31] Adam: Yes.
[0:23:31 – 0:23:32] Adam: Hilarious.
[0:23:32 – 0:23:32] Erik: Campsite 4.
[0:23:32 – 0:23:34] Adam: Paddling to the east.
[0:23:34 – 0:23:36] Erik: We will get to at the end.
[0:23:36 – 0:23:37] Erik: We’re going to vote for our favorites.
[0:23:37 – 0:23:43] Erik: But Campsite 4, I’m not going to give it away or anything, but this is a leading contender.
[0:23:44 – 0:24:12] Adam: um so we’re gonna go to the east up and around that point down and around the point i guess basically right in the middle of the lake um yeah this is your halfway kind of campsite if you missed the first three and you don’t quite want to risk going to the last three and it’s kind of straight across from the entry creek from deer so you can hear that on a calm day that’s nice yeah the little creek that comes down there is a very nice aspect in the uh in the evening especially when uh
[0:24:12 – 0:24:14] Adam: You’re kind of out there by yourself here.
[0:24:14 – 0:24:16] Adam: I mean, this is as private as it gets on Caribou.
[0:24:17 – 0:24:21] Adam: I feel like any of the other campsites, you have a chance of seeing somebody else on a different campsite.
[0:24:21 – 0:24:26] Adam: This one, you may get some people, you know, paddling beyond or past you.
[0:24:26 – 0:24:29] Adam: But once the night comes, the lake is yours.
[0:24:29 – 0:24:29] Adam: Yeah.
[0:24:29 – 0:24:30] Adam: This is a great campsite.
[0:24:30 – 0:24:30] Erik: Yeah.
[0:24:30 – 0:24:33] Erik: The first three, like you were saying, have a trail that connect them.
[0:24:33 – 0:24:37] Erik: And then the last two, I mean, they basically look at each other and see each other.
[0:24:37 – 0:24:40] Erik: So campsite four, I think, is the most private.
[0:24:41 – 0:24:53] Erik: It’s got a nice, nice, shallow sloping slab of rock that we really like to see in a boundary waters campsite for landing purposes and just generally being able to walk around comfortably.
[0:24:54 – 0:25:14] Erik: Um, the, the swimming right off of a campsite might be, uh, you know, not be as great because of the, the, the, the shallow waters, but I have built, um, multiple, um, Bachman Turner overdrive stages with rocks in the wind in the summer before.
[0:25:14 – 0:25:17] Erik: So, you know, there, there is an opportunity to get in and make it your own.
[0:25:17 – 0:25:17] Erik: Um,
[0:25:18 – 0:25:25] Erik: Um, tons of tent pads, uh, I’ve set up, I think I’ve had six hammocks set up in this campsite before.
[0:25:26 – 0:25:30] Erik: Um, it’s, uh, got a really nice centralized fire grade area.
[0:25:31 – 0:25:40] Erik: I think the only downside, yeah, like, uh, we said is the shallow waters right off the site kind of makes it difficult to, uh, to do much in the way of fishing, but, um,
[0:25:40 – 0:25:42] Erik: All around, really nice site.
[0:25:42 – 0:25:43] Erik: Nice and private.
[0:25:43 – 0:25:46] Erik: It’s got big trees, very wide open.
[0:25:47 – 0:25:49] Erik: And yeah, you’re going to make it.
[0:25:49 – 0:25:49] Erik: It’s a beaut.
[0:25:50 – 0:25:53] Erik: It’s going to feel like you’re camping on caribou by yourself.
[0:25:53 – 0:25:54] Adam: Which is hard to do.
[0:25:55 – 0:25:55] Erik: Yes.
[0:25:56 – 0:25:58] Adam: Moving down the leg, Campsite 5.
[0:25:58 – 0:26:02] Adam: So we’re through the pinch point and the narrows into the back bay now, as they call it.
[0:26:02 – 0:26:03] Erik: Yes, the back bay.
[0:26:03 – 0:26:06] Adam: And the back bay is very fine, as we previously talked about.
[0:26:06 – 0:26:08] Adam: But the two campsites here are really nice.
[0:26:09 – 0:26:12] Adam: Campsite 5 is the first one you’ll encounter.
[0:26:12 – 0:26:13] Adam: It’s near a small island.
[0:26:15 – 0:26:18] Adam: And it’s kind of tucked in behind the small island on the north shore.
[0:26:18 – 0:26:20] Adam: And it’s really great.
[0:26:20 – 0:26:24] Adam: I don’t know if it’s really that great, but I’ve had some good experiences here.
[0:26:24 – 0:26:26] Adam: And I can’t disparage the site at all.
[0:26:26 – 0:26:28] Adam: I really enjoy this campsite.
[0:26:29 – 0:26:32] Adam: I’ve caught a large northern pike right off this campsite.
[0:26:33 – 0:26:36] Adam: And I’ve done some really good fishing by the little island in that back bay.
[0:26:36 – 0:26:37] Adam: So…
[0:26:38 – 0:26:41] Adam: You could do yourself some really nice times back here.
[0:26:41 – 0:26:44] Adam: And yeah, I don’t know.
[0:26:44 – 0:26:46] Adam: You’ve given it a B minus.
[0:26:46 – 0:26:47] Adam: I think that’s fair.
[0:26:47 – 0:26:49] Adam: It’s not incredible by any means.
[0:26:50 – 0:26:50] Adam: It’s kind of flat.
[0:26:51 – 0:26:52] Adam: And what do you got?
[0:26:52 – 0:26:53] Adam: 310 pads?
[0:26:53 – 0:26:55] Erik: Yeah, for me, I’ve never actually camped here.
[0:26:55 – 0:26:59] Erik: This is the only campsite on Caribou I’ve not spent a night on.
[0:27:00 – 0:27:02] Erik: And for the longest time, this campsite was my white whale.
[0:27:03 – 0:27:10] Erik: Every time that I wanted to try to get into it with a camera and take pictures and get a review in or even camp at it, it was always occupied.
[0:27:11 – 0:27:15] Erik: Uh, so for the longest time I had no idea what to make of it.
[0:27:15 – 0:27:21] Erik: So, um, just in the last couple of years, I finally got in there and I finally got in and was able to take a look at it.
[0:27:22 – 0:27:26] Erik: So my rating is based on about a 20 minute walk around.
[0:27:26 – 0:27:34] Erik: So I don’t know if my rating of it is as accurate as the other five campsites, which I’ve actually spent multiple nights at.
[0:27:35 – 0:27:37] Erik: Um, but I think, you know,
[0:27:37 – 0:27:41] Erik: I think I would still tend to agree with what I saw.
[0:27:42 – 0:27:42] Erik: Yeah.
[0:27:42 – 0:27:48] Erik: But actually spending, you know, like I talk about in the beginning of any campsite reviews, it’s all subjective.
[0:27:48 – 0:27:50] Erik: It depends on who you’re there with.
[0:27:50 – 0:27:51] Erik: It depends on what the weather is like.
[0:27:51 – 0:27:52] Erik: Yeah.
[0:27:52 – 0:28:00] Erik: But, you know, being there by yourself and just judging it objectively, hopefully, as much as possible, it kind of seemed like a B- site.
[0:28:00 – 0:28:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:28:02 – 0:28:03] Adam: I think B- is fair.
[0:28:04 – 0:28:07] Adam: I mean, the one time I stayed here, it was amazing.
[0:28:07 – 0:28:10] Adam: And then literally every other time I’ve paddled by, somebody’s been in there.
[0:28:11 – 0:28:11] Adam: Yeah.
[0:28:11 – 0:28:12] Adam: Like every time.
[0:28:12 – 0:28:13] Erik: It seems a little small.
[0:28:13 – 0:28:15] Erik: It looks way bigger from the lake.
[0:28:15 – 0:28:20] Erik: And then you get up in it and it’s just like, oh, it’s basically this campfire area right on the rocks.
[0:28:20 – 0:28:24] Erik: And then maybe two or three tent pads just like right behind it.
[0:28:24 – 0:28:25] Erik: It’s a pretty cramped site.
[0:28:25 – 0:28:30] Adam: There’s something magical about having a little island, a little tiny island just like right out in front of you.
[0:28:30 – 0:28:30] Adam: Yeah.
[0:28:30 – 0:28:30] Adam: Kind of magical.
[0:28:30 – 0:28:36] Adam: asks you from their surrounding lake but gives it perspective.
[0:28:36 – 0:28:38] Adam: I really enjoy this campsite.
[0:28:38 – 0:28:42] Adam: It’s definitely not the most majestic but I highly recommend it.
[0:28:42 – 0:28:42] Erik: Yep.
[0:28:42 – 0:28:43] Erik: No, no doubt.
[0:28:43 – 0:28:48] Erik: There’s no campsite on this lake that I wouldn’t recommend outside of maybe number three.
[0:28:48 – 0:29:01] Erik: But number six, the last campsite, this is the one I have camped at the most just because of back in the day, I’d used to head out after work and we’d usually get down to the end of Caribou and we’d have to make that decision.
[0:29:01 – 0:29:05] Erik: We’d stop at the portage between Caribou and Little Caribou and…
[0:29:07 – 0:29:18] Erik: We would always walk across, and almost inevitably, the Little Caribou Campsite would be occupied, so we’d have to walk back and then paddle back up to Campsite 6, the last one on Caribou.
[0:29:18 – 0:29:22] Erik: But it’s a nice spot.
[0:29:22 – 0:29:26] Erik: It’s got a really good landing kind of just around the corner.
[0:29:26 – 0:29:27] Erik: It really is.
[0:29:27 – 0:29:32] Erik: I think the biggest issue with it is it’s kind of got the opposite problem with Campsite 5.
[0:29:32 – 0:29:33] Erik: It actually looks like it has…
[0:29:34 – 0:29:55] Erik: way more room than it does whereas campsite five the one right across from the island you look at you’re like wow that thing’s tiny um there’s not as many flat areas at campsite six if you’re looking to set up tent pads if you’re hammocking though i mean yeah there’s a ton of nice pine right up on the shore and great slopes and uh yeah i mean you could
[0:29:56 – 0:30:25] Adam: slip bobber for day is sitting here you could i’m sure just sit there and catch as much fish as you would need for at least eating purposes so um and you got a great look down the lake yep i think yeah with five and six the only real downside is they kind of look like right at each other yeah so like at night you’re kind of sitting there you’re like oh those guys are putting their fire out and plus a lot of people do just go in there for a day trip and fish or they’re you know you see a lot of people coming by you’re going to johnson falls or back what have you
[0:30:25 – 0:30:29] Erik: Or you get a couple of yahoos like us who go in there in the evening and dump their canoe.
[0:30:29 – 0:30:30] Adam: Yelling and screaming.
[0:30:30 – 0:30:33] Erik: Yeah, on a dead calm night.
[0:30:33 – 0:30:34] Erik: We’ll get to that later.
[0:30:35 – 0:30:37] Adam: We will finish the show with that story.
[0:30:37 – 0:30:38] Erik: Stay tuned.
[0:30:38 – 0:30:42] Erik: I think Campsite 6, I gave it an A-.
[0:30:42 – 0:30:43] Erik: I think that’s pretty accurate.
[0:30:43 – 0:30:44] Erik: Maybe B+.
[0:30:44 – 0:30:45] Adam: Either way, I could go.
[0:30:46 – 0:30:47] Adam: I’ve actually never camped here.
[0:30:48 – 0:31:00] Adam: I’ve stopped here numerous times and like a couple of times where you’re coming back to Clearwater and you’re like literally into two foot headwinds and you got to, you literally like, you just got out a little caribou and you’d have to stop here.
[0:31:00 – 0:31:03] Adam: Cause it’s kind of rounding the corner where the lake opens up.
[0:31:04 – 0:31:25] Adam: and this is your last chance to like kind of pull over wiggle your arms wiggle your legs and then get back in and really you got to push through of like three more miles of heavy duty level 110 paddling yep and you’ve been there it’s a good yeah it’s an easy spot to pull over and kind of stretch your arms but i’ve actually never camped there but i’ve stopped here numerous times it’s it’s okay
[0:31:27 – 0:31:29] Adam: Okay, so we’ve covered all six.
[0:31:29 – 0:31:30] Adam: So Eric, what’s your favorite campsite?
[0:31:30 – 0:31:32] Adam: I’m putting you on the spot here.
[0:31:32 – 0:31:33] Erik: On the spot.
[0:31:34 – 0:31:35] Erik: Well, it’s easy.
[0:31:35 – 0:31:37] Erik: Campsite four is my favorite campsite.
[0:31:37 – 0:31:42] Erik: I have camped there the most times, which obviously skews it a little bit.
[0:31:42 – 0:31:44] Erik: But I think that’s the beauty of the Boundary Waters.
[0:31:44 – 0:31:47] Erik: You know, your experiences at the campsites make them.
[0:31:48 – 0:31:55] Erik: But I even still taking that out of the equation, think it’s the best campsite in general.
[0:31:55 – 0:31:56] Erik: It’s the most secluded.
[0:31:56 – 0:31:58] Erik: It’s got the easiest access.
[0:31:58 – 0:32:03] Erik: It’s the largest in terms of tents or hammocks.
[0:32:03 – 0:32:07] Erik: The only thing that you really can’t do from this campsite is fish easily.
[0:32:08 – 0:32:14] Erik: But you can build a hell of a BTO stage right off of that boat ramp.
[0:32:14 – 0:32:16] Erik: And number four is my vote.
[0:32:16 – 0:32:16] Adam: How about you?
[0:32:17 – 0:32:21] Adam: Yeah, I’m going to go with five, um, by the little Island in the back Bay.
[0:32:22 – 0:32:33] Adam: And, uh, I would agree that four is probably the best one, but, uh, five has sentimental value just because of the, the first trip I went in there and we literally caught so many fish just literally.
[0:32:34 – 0:32:50] Adam: casting out of the campsite and then we took the canoe out around the little island and where there’s this nice little flat back there that you can kind of drift through and we caught so many fish but the indication there was the bugs were terrible so you know the fishing’s going to be good when the bugs are bad
[0:32:50 – 0:33:14] Adam: tons of hellgrammites oh it was terrible i’ve stopped at that island before and it was just like the shells of dragonflies so literally the the the fishing was so good and the bugs so bad that i was drifting around in that back bay cleaning fish in the canoe because i couldn’t handle cleaning fish on shore that’s how bad the bugs were but you shouldn’t let that stop you from checking it out because we ate really well on that trip and uh
[0:33:14 – 0:33:18] Adam: It was just a good time with my old buddy Captain Mike back there.
[0:33:19 – 0:33:20] Adam: So I’m going to go with number five.
[0:33:21 – 0:33:27] Adam: And that kind of sets us up to talk about the fishing numbers here, which we’ve already led with and kind of alluded to.
[0:33:28 – 0:33:31] Adam: But overall, very good fishing lake in that back bay especially.
[0:33:31 – 0:33:32] Adam: What do we got in here?
[0:33:32 – 0:33:37] Adam: We have some burbot and whitefish, which I’ve never run into, but I do believe it.
[0:33:38 – 0:33:41] Erik: No, we’ll run down the black and white numbers here for you.
[0:33:41 – 0:33:43] Erik: We’ve kind of hinted at some of our experiences with the lake.
[0:33:44 – 0:33:48] Erik: It’s, like we said, about three, three and a half miles long, pretty narrow.
[0:33:48 – 0:33:50] Erik: I don’t think it ever gets more than a half mile wide.
[0:33:50 – 0:33:53] Erik: It says it’s 461 acres.
[0:33:53 – 0:33:56] Erik: We talked about this in the Clearwater episode.
[0:33:56 – 0:33:58] Erik: That never really does anything for me.
[0:33:58 – 0:34:03] Erik: But if people out there understand acreage on lakes better than I do, more power to you.
[0:34:03 – 0:34:27] Erik: it’s kind of the same length and shape as clear water but like by a third yeah it’s like a mini clear water with about the third of the clarity about 12 and a half feet clarity um and it gets down to about half as deep 65 feet i would say the you know the average depth probably closer to 20 especially with that back bay into consideration um but yeah after uh
[0:34:28 – 0:34:52] Adam: after burbot lake whitefish northern pike looks like there is a lot of whitefish in there i’ve never run into one but no doesn’t mean anything they’re a shy fish yeah i’ve caught i’ve only really caught whitefish while crappie fishing which that’s going to kind of give away where i’ve been fishing because there’s not too many lakes with crappie up here and this is not one of them no it’s not but you could get them with a little jig or something i’m thinking
[0:34:52 – 0:34:54] Erik: Yeah, the whitefish, like the numbers.
[0:34:55 – 0:34:59] Erik: We’ve got burbot, whitefish, northern pike, smallmouth bass, walleye, and white sucker.
[0:34:59 – 0:35:00] Adam: Look at the numbers on the whitefish.
[0:35:01 – 0:35:02] Adam: Oh, my gosh.
[0:35:02 – 0:35:06] Adam: The northern pike, there’s like one in the 40 to 44-inch category.
[0:35:06 – 0:35:16] Erik: And I’ve seen pictures, and I’ve been on trips with people where it’s one of those things where you set the hook, and it’s about four seconds of…
[0:35:17 – 0:35:45] Erik: break on or you kind of get it up to the boat and it’s like well we don’t have a net what do i do do it’s gonna capsize this canoe trying to get this yeah so there are i mean i can attest it’s got trophy pike there are huge pike in there especially in that back bay um the one thing that i’m most surprised by on the uh the official survey from the minnesota dnr which uh i don’t know if it says exactly the last time that they did it well we’ll give a quick recap on the uh
[0:35:46 – 0:35:49] Erik: Yeah, this is the 2000.
[0:35:50 – 0:35:54] Erik: That’s the only survey, which, you know, it’s better than nothing.
[0:35:55 – 0:35:56] Adam: It’s a general snapshot.
[0:35:56 – 0:35:59] Erik: The one thing that I notice on this is the smallmouth bass.
[0:35:59 – 0:36:00] Adam: Yeah, pretty weak looking.
[0:36:01 – 0:36:02] Adam: I can tell you that’s not true.
[0:36:02 – 0:36:02] Erik: No, it’s not.
[0:36:03 – 0:36:04] Erik: Like the largest one is 12 to 14.
[0:36:04 – 0:36:06] Erik: Yeah, my buns.
[0:36:06 – 0:36:06] Adam: Yeah.
[0:36:07 – 0:36:36] Erik: the small moth bass fishing on uh on caribou is insane in the spring like you can catch so many it’ll make your elbow hurt like i have tennis elbow and it flares up after a day of smallie fishing back there yeah i remember a guy that was uh working at clearwater for a summer um who is a pretty uh hardcore fisher person um construction guy that was helping us out uh we brought him back there and he was just going crazy because it was like every other fish was like
[0:36:37 – 0:36:41] Erik: 18, 19, 20, 20 plus, 20 plus, just back and forth over and over again.
[0:36:41 – 0:36:45] Adam: And it was like, I mean, that’s just how it goes in that back bay.
[0:36:45 – 0:36:50] Adam: If you want to get a 20 inch smallmouth bass, you go put yourself in the back bay at Caribou in June.
[0:36:50 – 0:36:50] Adam: Yep.
[0:36:51 – 0:36:53] Adam: You’re going to fight the bugs, but you’re probably going to get one.
[0:36:53 – 0:37:01] Erik: Yeah, usually like I would say the last half of June between the last campsite and the portage into Little Caribou.
[0:37:01 – 0:37:03] Erik: Like that’s the best place to try.
[0:37:03 – 0:37:08] Erik: And I mean, there are places that over the course of this podcast, I’m, you know,
[0:37:08 – 0:37:27] Erik: maybe it’s going to be a little uh you know local lake as they say or uh you know a secret hole or none your business whatever um i mean the smallmouth bass on that lake are they’re throughout in that that time of year and they’re huge uh that’s just one of the many places um
[0:37:28 – 0:37:33] Erik: And to see that even in 2000, the numbers are way lower than I would have ever expected.
[0:37:33 – 0:37:35] Erik: I have to assume they’re totally different.
[0:37:35 – 0:37:39] Adam: I just have to assume that the bass somehow are eluding the sampling.
[0:37:39 – 0:37:40] Erik: It could be possible.
[0:37:40 – 0:37:40] Erik: I know.
[0:37:40 – 0:37:48] Erik: I think I’ve ever, I’ve read that before where like small moth bass are never really represented very well in nets when it comes to the DNR.
[0:37:48 – 0:37:58] Adam: You know, there’s the same reason why you never see them caught in the winter is the same reason they don’t, they kind of just, they’re, they keep to themselves and yeah, I don’t know.
[0:37:58 – 0:37:58] Adam: Maybe they’re wily.
[0:37:59 – 0:38:23] Erik: they are pretty wily um but pretty good walleye numbers they’re reflected in this 2000 net survey i would agree with what i see here pretty solid numbers in the low 20 inch range yeah um the biggest challenge with catching walleye on caribou is uh getting by the small i guess start through the smallies to get to them walleyes but they’re in there yeah keep at it yep um
[0:38:24 – 0:38:28] Adam: I know when I first worked up here, Bob Marchino was always raving about the walleye fishing.
[0:38:28 – 0:38:31] Adam: You got to go by the little Creek that comes in from deer Lake.
[0:38:31 – 0:38:32] Erik: That’s a good spot.
[0:38:32 – 0:38:32] Adam: Yeah.
[0:38:32 – 0:38:37] Adam: You roll like live bait rigs and just troll up and down that shore until you find them and then slip bobber.
[0:38:38 – 0:38:41] Adam: And then you stop once you’ve located the school, which I don’t know.
[0:38:41 – 0:38:47] Adam: I mean, I respect Bob, but that’s kind of an old school method, but it can be effective.
[0:38:48 – 0:38:50] Adam: He also is like, you got to go to that point.
[0:38:50 – 0:38:54] Adam: It’s got a little two pronged point on the north side there, right past the first three campsites.
[0:38:54 – 0:38:59] Adam: And you sit off there with a little button, you know, tie a rock to a piece of line.
[0:39:00 – 0:39:21] Erik: anchor yourself there and bobber fish that’s an all right spot too um i think our best luck and you know the times we’ve fished has always been in either that back bay um trolling back and forth or slip bobber fishing off of that first site or trolling right in front of where you were talking about where that creek comes out of right right deer lake
[0:39:22 – 0:39:40] Adam: honestly as i’ve grown older and more experienced in my fishing up here like just there’s nothing wrong with throwing a husky jerk out behind the canoe and slowly paddling up and down any shoreline but especially in that back bait we’ve done some good stuff there we have we’ve had some adventures back there have we not
[0:39:40 – 0:39:41] Erik: Yeah, we have.
[0:39:41 – 0:39:47] Erik: And we’re going to finish up with one of my favorite stories I would say ever.
[0:39:47 – 0:39:49] Erik: Yeah, this is good.
[0:39:49 – 0:39:50] Erik: We’ve got quite a few.
[0:39:50 – 0:39:53] Adam: If you can’t make fun of yourselves, who can you make fun of?
[0:39:53 – 0:39:54] Erik: Right, over the years.
[0:39:54 – 0:39:56] Adam: You’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself.
[0:39:56 – 0:40:02] Erik: paddling into three-foot rollers, defying the odds, defying death.
[0:40:02 – 0:40:04] Adam: Yeah, so many dangerous situations.
[0:40:04 – 0:40:05] Adam: So many dangerous situations.
[0:40:05 – 0:40:07] Adam: Sometimes it’s the easiest situations that really bite you.
[0:40:07 – 0:40:17] Erik: Yeah, taking on three-foot rollers from the side, taking a chance just so you can get home, you know, when you really should be sitting and just waiting the wind out.
[0:40:17 – 0:40:24] Erik: One of my favorite stories, and with all of those nasty weather things in mind,
[0:40:26 – 0:40:48] Adam: i can only think of one time that i’ve actually capsized the canoe yeah and they’ve all been for like really ridiculous reasons too like in my experience it’s like when i’m younger and you’re just oh somebody reached too far over the side and knocked the whole boat over it’s never because of the crazy winds you’re in it always ends up being something else like somebody dropped a fishing pole over the side and tried to get it or whatever
[0:40:48 – 0:40:48] Adam: Yeah.
[0:40:49 – 0:40:50] Adam: That was just kind of what happened to us.
[0:40:50 – 0:40:52] Erik: Which is exactly what happened to me.
[0:40:52 – 0:40:52] Erik: We’re back there.
[0:40:52 – 0:40:56] Erik: I’ve been in horrible conditions where I shouldn’t be doing this.
[0:40:57 – 0:41:01] Erik: And then the one time that I capsized the canoe was actually by choice.
[0:41:01 – 0:41:02] Adam: Yeah.
[0:41:02 – 0:41:03] Adam: I chose.
[0:41:04 – 0:41:05] Adam: A chosen campsite.
[0:41:06 – 0:41:07] Adam: It turned out to be the right choice.
[0:41:07 – 0:41:17] Erik: The quick, you know, like your life flashing before your eyes almost where you’re like, I’m picturing what’s going to happen and I wait all the options within a microsecond and I’m going for it.
[0:41:17 – 0:41:23] Erik: We were in that back bay of Caribou on the east side between the 5th and 6th campsites.
[0:41:23 – 0:41:25] Erik: I would say it was like late June.
[0:41:26 – 0:41:28] Adam: Yeah, but the water was still somewhat cold.
[0:41:28 – 0:41:32] Erik: It wasn’t like deadly cold, but it was still like, yeah, you don’t want to just be like jumping in.
[0:41:32 – 0:41:36] Adam: So, yeah, we were kind of trolling back and forth, I think, with Husky Jerks.
[0:41:36 – 0:41:40] Erik: Yeah, we were just trolling back with, yeah, basic crankbaits, maybe an X-Wrap.
[0:41:40 – 0:41:41] Erik: I probably had an X-Wrap.
[0:41:41 – 0:41:44] Adam: Yeah, I think you were on an X-Wrap, and I was on, like, a small Husky Jerk.
[0:41:44 – 0:41:45] Erik: I’m a big fan of the X-Wrap.
[0:41:45 – 0:41:47] Adam: I’m a big fan of the Husky Jerk.
[0:41:47 – 0:41:48] Adam: Very good baits, either of them.
[0:41:48 – 0:41:49] Adam: Yeah.
[0:41:49 – 0:41:50] Adam: Solid for anything up there.
[0:41:50 – 0:41:52] Adam: You can get your grand slam on that lure.
[0:41:52 – 0:41:53] Erik: Yeah, we’ll have a throwdown.
[0:41:53 – 0:41:55] Erik: Yeah, we should have a lure episode.
[0:41:55 – 0:41:55] Erik: A throwdown debate.
[0:41:55 – 0:41:59] Adam: Episode 11, X-Wrap versus Husky Jerk Rapala 2018.
[0:42:01 – 0:42:02] Erik: Anyway, we were in the back bay.
[0:42:02 – 0:42:06] Erik: It was like a beautiful like late spring evening.
[0:42:06 – 0:42:06] Erik: It was really nice.
[0:42:07 – 0:42:10] Erik: The sun had like kind of just gone below the horizon.
[0:42:10 – 0:42:15] Erik: But the horizon is steep hills on Caribou, so it wasn’t actually down much.
[0:42:16 – 0:42:17] Erik: But the sun wasn’t on us.
[0:42:17 – 0:42:21] Erik: There was two people, two groups in the fifth and sixth campsites.
[0:42:21 – 0:42:28] Erik: You kind of just see, you know, the puffs of their early evening fires kind of coming up off of their campsites.
[0:42:28 – 0:42:31] Erik: Just one of those nights where it’s dead calm.
[0:42:31 – 0:42:34] Erik: If you didn’t say anything, you could, like, hear them talking.
[0:42:34 – 0:42:37] Erik: Like, oh, man, yeah, that guy’s an investment banker.
[0:42:38 – 0:42:38] Adam: He is.
[0:42:38 – 0:42:38] Erik: Oh, wow.
[0:42:39 – 0:42:40] Erik: And he’s doing really well.
[0:42:40 – 0:42:41] Adam: Nice.
[0:42:41 – 0:42:42] Adam: The market is up.
[0:42:42 – 0:42:43] Adam: Yeah, the market.
[0:42:43 – 0:42:43] Adam: He’s bullish.
[0:42:43 – 0:42:44] Adam: Real bullish.
[0:42:44 – 0:42:46] Adam: Maybe we should just get out of here and go and invest our money.
[0:42:46 – 0:42:48] Erik: Yeah, let’s just paddle over there and talk to that guy.
[0:42:48 – 0:42:50] Adam: It was one of those evenings where it was just dead calm.
[0:42:50 – 0:42:51] Erik: We’re like whispering.
[0:42:53 – 0:43:01] Erik: And so we had a couple of walleyes on the string and we’re just slowly kind of trolling along this south shore back and forth into this place.
[0:43:01 – 0:43:02] Adam: I wasn’t even paddling.
[0:43:02 – 0:43:03] Adam: You were paddling in the back.
[0:43:03 – 0:43:06] Adam: I was just sitting up front trolling.
[0:43:06 – 0:43:10] Erik: You were paddling off to the… Or you had your rod off to the left.
[0:43:10 – 0:43:11] Erik: I had mine off to the right.
[0:43:11 – 0:43:13] Erik: And I was just slowly paddling along.
[0:43:13 – 0:43:14] Erik: And…
[0:43:15 – 0:43:16] Erik: I ran into one.
[0:43:16 – 0:43:16] Erik: One more.
[0:43:17 – 0:43:17] Erik: Here we go.
[0:43:17 – 0:43:18] Erik: Third one.
[0:43:18 – 0:43:20] Erik: You quickly reeled in.
[0:43:20 – 0:43:21] Erik: Yeah, I got out of the way.
[0:43:22 – 0:43:22] Erik: Set the hook.
[0:43:23 – 0:43:24] Adam: It’s coming in.
[0:43:24 – 0:43:25] Adam: I don’t even know if we had a net.
[0:43:25 – 0:43:26] Adam: Maybe we had a net.
[0:43:26 – 0:43:29] Adam: I think we maybe had a net, but I don’t remember that.
[0:43:29 – 0:43:30] Adam: We got the fish in.
[0:43:30 – 0:43:31] Adam: It was a pretty nice walleye.
[0:43:31 – 0:43:32] Erik: Yeah, it was a solid one.
[0:43:32 – 0:43:37] Erik: It was like right in the same line, like 18, 19, 20-inch perfect eater.
[0:43:37 – 0:43:39] Erik: We got three of them on the stringer now.
[0:43:41 – 0:43:42] Erik: Get it off the hook.
[0:43:43 – 0:43:47] Adam: It’s to the point where we’ve gotten a picture of it, I think.
[0:43:47 – 0:43:52] Adam: I had gotten a picture from the front seat kind of turned around of you like, here’s a nice picture, and I –
[0:43:53 – 0:43:58] Adam: I turn around, I put my camera away, and I literally had already thrown another cast out because it’s like, well, we’re in a school.
[0:43:59 – 0:44:01] Adam: I’ve got to try and get one more greedily.
[0:44:02 – 0:44:05] Adam: And as I’m reeling back, I feel the whoop.
[0:44:06 – 0:44:10] Adam: I hear a whoop, and then the canoe kind of shifts to the left and then rapidly to the right.
[0:44:11 – 0:44:12] Erik: And we were both in the water.
[0:44:12 – 0:44:14] Adam: Yeah, I’m in the water holding my fishing rod.
[0:44:14 – 0:44:18] Erik: Going, what, what, what, what?
[0:44:18 – 0:44:23] Erik: And a dead calm afternoon where both of the campsites were wondering, what are these yahoos doing?
[0:44:23 – 0:44:25] Adam: Yeah, and the water was cold.
[0:44:25 – 0:44:28] Erik: Yeah, so I was…
[0:44:28 – 0:44:29] Adam: So what happened?
[0:44:29 – 0:44:32] Erik: Yeah, so that was the… That’s what I was trying to ask.
[0:44:32 – 0:44:33] Adam: The first thing you asked me…
[0:44:33 – 0:44:34] Adam: I couldn’t even make words.
[0:44:34 – 0:44:35] Adam: I was so shocked.
[0:44:35 – 0:44:36] UNKNOWN: What, what?
[0:44:36 – 0:44:37] Erik: What are you doing?
[0:44:37 – 0:44:38] Erik: What are you doing?
[0:44:38 – 0:44:38] Erik: Yeah.
[0:44:38 – 0:44:39] Erik: It was worth it.
[0:44:39 – 0:44:40] Erik: It was totally worth it.
[0:44:40 – 0:44:41] Erik: I had to make that decision.
[0:44:42 – 0:44:45] Erik: Because I got this walleye in the boat.
[0:44:45 – 0:44:47] Erik: We had this stringer of walleyes hanging off the side of the canoe.
[0:44:48 – 0:44:53] Erik: And it was one of those green and yellow plastic snap stringers.
[0:44:53 – 0:44:54] Erik: Yes.
[0:44:55 – 0:45:01] Erik: There was two walleyes hooked on to the bottom two loops, hooked on the third walleye on to the next loop up.
[0:45:02 – 0:45:14] Erik: And then for whatever reason, you know, whatever, let’s call it a brain fart, which I’m not a huge fan of that terminology, but I completely forgot.
[0:45:14 – 0:45:16] Adam: You’re just a bozey for a little bit.
[0:45:16 – 0:45:16] Adam: Yeah.
[0:45:16 – 0:45:17] Adam: You’re being a bozey.
[0:45:17 – 0:45:20] Erik: completely forgot to re-hook the stringer onto the canoe.
[0:45:20 – 0:45:21] Erik: Threw it in.
[0:45:21 – 0:45:27] Erik: I just threw the stringer in and then I’m sitting there like, oh, let’s get this X-Wrap untangled and back on the lake.
[0:45:27 – 0:45:36] Erik: And I kind of look over to the right as I see the yellow and green stringer slowly clicking and clacking over the gunwale back into the water.
[0:45:37 – 0:45:43] Erik: And I see these three walleyes just swimming languidly back down towards the bottom.
[0:45:43 – 0:45:43] Erik: There they go.
[0:45:43 – 0:45:44] Erik: Depths.
[0:45:44 – 0:45:48] Erik: And it’s, oh, there goes the last clip of the stringer.
[0:45:49 – 0:45:51] Erik: Now they’re just swimming down towards the bottom of the lake.
[0:45:52 – 0:45:56] Erik: And I realized in that second, I forgot to connect it to the boat.
[0:45:56 – 0:46:01] Erik: And I had to, in that split second, think, do I want to let three walleyes swim away?
[0:46:01 – 0:46:21] Erik: with a stringer attached to them or do i want to dive for him and i i just flipped i flipped down to the right and i dove for it and i caught the loop of the stringer on my index finger the last loop i snagged it and you yeah by him like you’re the tippier index finger
[0:46:21 – 0:46:28] Erik: Yeah, we were flipping up, and you came to, what the heck are we doing?
[0:46:28 – 0:46:34] Adam: I could barely say what’s going on, and then you kind of pulled the stringer up out of the water, and I instantly understood, like, yes.
[0:46:34 – 0:46:35] Erik: Dead calm.
[0:46:36 – 0:46:36] Erik: There was no reason.
[0:46:36 – 0:46:40] Erik: We’ve paddled into two-foot rollers, three-foot rollers in the past.
[0:46:40 – 0:46:44] Erik: Why are we flipping in the calm evening?
[0:46:44 – 0:46:46] Adam: I was completely flabbergasted.
[0:46:46 – 0:46:46] Adam: Yeah.
[0:46:46 – 0:46:52] Erik: So we had to slowly kind of like swim, pull the canoe back towards shore.
[0:46:53 – 0:46:57] Adam: And then I pulled up the three walleyes and I told you what happened, which, you know.
[0:46:57 – 0:46:57] Adam: It made sense.
[0:46:57 – 0:46:59] Adam: But then we, yeah, we got on shore.
[0:46:59 – 0:47:03] Adam: We’re like literally draining full boots of water out and kind of laughing.
[0:47:03 – 0:47:08] Adam: And these, you could see the people camping on the far shore, like shaking their heads.
[0:47:08 – 0:47:09] Adam: And these bozos, they.
[0:47:10 – 0:47:11] Erik: Did you imagine being at one of those campsites?
[0:47:12 – 0:47:13] Erik: Dead calm, like.
[0:47:13 – 0:47:13] Erik: Yeah.
[0:47:13 – 0:47:36] Adam: glass like there’s a a mirror image of the shoreline and then all of a sudden there’s this thrashing on the on the south shore of the lake for no reason yeah what are these people doing yeah but you know we were finding then i think as a testament or we we got everything drained out and cleaned up and we got the walleyes hooked on yeah and then what do we do now we didn’t paddle back
[0:47:36 – 0:47:37] Erik: No, we were soaking wet, but we kept fishing.
[0:47:38 – 0:47:39] Adam: Well, yeah, we had done so well.
[0:47:39 – 0:47:40] Adam: It’s like we can get another one.
[0:47:40 – 0:47:41] Adam: We can get one more walleye.
[0:47:41 – 0:47:44] Adam: So we did like two more trolling runs up and down that shoreline.
[0:47:45 – 0:47:48] Adam: Those people in camp must have been so confused because it was early season.
[0:47:48 – 0:47:50] Adam: It wasn’t warm water, but it was kind of a nice night.
[0:47:50 – 0:47:52] Erik: It wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t like deadly cold.
[0:47:52 – 0:47:52] Erik: Yeah.
[0:47:52 – 0:47:54] Erik: But it wasn’t like no big deal.
[0:47:54 – 0:47:57] Adam: Well, we got like 30 more minutes of daylight and headlamps.
[0:47:58 – 0:47:58] Adam: That was the other thing.
[0:47:58 – 0:47:59] Adam: Let’s keep going.
[0:47:59 – 0:48:01] Erik: We had to portage back into clear water.
[0:48:01 – 0:48:02] Adam: I think we did get one more.
[0:48:02 – 0:48:05] Adam: I think I caught another walleye after that.
[0:48:05 – 0:48:06] Erik: I think you maybe did.
[0:48:06 – 0:48:07] Adam: I believe we did.
[0:48:07 – 0:48:10] Adam: So we got back and we cleaned the walleyes in the dark.
[0:48:10 – 0:48:13] Adam: We made it, and we’re still here to talk about the story.
[0:48:13 – 0:48:20] Erik: Yeah, no, I think, you know, when you asked me what the first thing I think about Caribou Lake is, you know, it is, I think in general…
[0:48:21 – 0:48:40] Adam: the big the big smallies that we catch but that story always comes to mind it’s one of my favorites um you know yeah no that’s honestly that’s what i think of now that’s so funny and like i remember too like this vivid detail of hearing right before we went in like the sound of the saw wet owl oh yeah it was just dead calm
[0:48:40 – 0:48:41] Adam: It is so calm.
[0:48:41 – 0:48:45] Adam: You can hear it like way up in the hills and then another one calling from the other side of the bay.
[0:48:45 – 0:48:45] Adam: Yeah.
[0:48:45 – 0:48:48] Adam: And it’s just, it’s one of those moments I’ll never forget.
[0:48:48 – 0:48:50] Adam: And another reason why I love this park.
[0:48:50 – 0:48:52] Adam: It’s a very great place.
[0:48:52 – 0:48:53] Erik: Yeah, Caribou Lake is solid.
[0:48:54 – 0:48:59] Erik: It’s no wonder why it’s one of the more popular ones based on its access, incredible fishing.
[0:49:00 – 0:49:04] Erik: It’s just an all-around great lake.
[0:49:05 – 0:49:09] Erik: Take your chances in the heat of the season, July and August.
[0:49:09 – 0:49:16] Erik: If it’s early in the spring or late in the fall, there’s no real reason to worry about campsites being available.
[0:49:16 – 0:49:17] Erik: But
[0:49:17 – 0:49:32] Erik: Um, if there’s any lake that you should be aware of in terms of, uh, its popularity and campsite availability, I would say even outside of Clearwater, Clearwater has much more campsite availability than Caribou does during the summer, uh, July and August.
[0:49:32 – 0:49:33] Erik: So, um,
[0:49:35 – 0:49:42] Erik: Yeah, so with that, I think we’re going to wrap up Caribou Lake in terms of what we have to say on it.
[0:49:42 – 0:49:48] Erik: But we did get some comments from Kyle on Facebook.
[0:49:48 – 0:49:48] Erik: Thank you, Kyle.
[0:49:49 – 0:49:50] Erik: Yeah, thanks, Kyle, for listening.
[0:49:51 – 0:50:00] Erik: He has some questions that I think we’re going to do our best to answer, but we’re also going to hopefully in the future be able to bring in some people.
[0:50:01 – 0:50:02] Adam: Or have to phone a friend.
[0:50:02 – 0:50:16] Erik: Yeah, it’s a phone-a-friend situation because we do have somebody who grew up back in the 40s and 50s whose parents owned the lodge at the time, who’s a wealth of information.
[0:50:16 – 0:50:18] Erik: We’d love to have him on.
[0:50:18 – 0:50:19] Erik: A great storyteller.
[0:50:19 – 0:50:20] Erik: Eventually.
[0:50:20 – 0:50:27] Erik: And I know he has very specific stories to the questions that Kyle has asked us about
[0:50:28 – 0:50:33] Erik: He wants to know if we’ve ever had any success catching whitefish on caribou.
[0:50:33 – 0:50:38] Erik: He also wants to know if there was ever a time that there were not walleye in the lake.
[0:50:39 – 0:50:46] Erik: And I think both of those kind of go back to some of the stories that we’ve heard from…
[0:50:47 – 0:50:51] Erik: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me just saying Don Schliep, gentleman who…
[0:50:51 – 0:50:53] Adam: The man, the myth, the legend.
[0:50:53 – 0:50:53] Erik: Yeah.
[0:50:53 – 0:50:53] Erik: Yeah.
[0:50:54 – 0:51:22] Erik: lives on the lake now he grew up he’s a living legend i would say yeah his parents uh his parents owned clearwater lodge back in the day and um i’m gonna do my best to remember what he has told me about uh you know the history of caribou lake specifically on the fisheries yeah um i don’t know if anything that he’s ever told me about caribou has specifically related to whitefish i’ve never heard i don’t remember hearing him talk about the whitefish at all no that doesn’t mean they weren’t in there
[0:51:22 – 0:51:34] Erik: No, I’ve never heard of anybody catching whitefish, but the 2000 survey of the lake did find quite a few.
[0:51:34 – 0:51:37] Adam: It’s a thriving whitefish population.
[0:51:37 – 0:51:41] Erik: Almost 50 fish over 20 inches were netted.
[0:51:41 – 0:51:44] Adam: Yeah, those plus 20s, that’s a really nice whitefish population.
[0:51:44 – 0:51:50] Erik: Yeah, no, for a lake like that, it’s a little surprising, but I don’t have any personal experience with it.
[0:51:50 – 0:51:53] Erik: I’ve never heard of anybody trying to go out and net.
[0:51:53 – 0:51:54] Adam: That’s a tricky one.
[0:51:54 – 0:51:58] Adam: Yeah, it’s like they’re netted, but I don’t know that you’re allowed to net in Caribou.
[0:51:58 – 0:51:59] Adam: I don’t think you are.
[0:51:59 – 0:52:00] Adam: I don’t think you are.
[0:52:00 – 0:52:12] Adam: I mean, even if you could, that’s something where you want to attend to your nets every day and being on Boundary Waters Lake, just unless you’re set up camping for a week and netting, that maybe would work, but it would be a tricky scenario.
[0:52:12 – 0:52:13] Adam: You can certainly jig them up.
[0:52:14 – 0:52:22] Adam: And honestly, I lived on Poplar Lake for five years and I didn’t even know whitefish were in there really until we started catching them while we were trying to crappie fish.
[0:52:24 – 0:52:50] Erik: Yeah, so the whitefish, you know, I don’t know if we can give you much clarification on that, but the question about walleyes and another part of his question, actually, he says he caught a largemouth bass in a lake in 2008, which that is a little bit more of a story that I can relate to from what I’ve heard from Don.
[0:52:50 – 0:52:51] Erik: Yeah.
[0:52:52 – 0:52:54] Erik: is it used to just be a largemouth bass lake.
[0:52:54 – 0:52:55] Erik: Right.
[0:52:55 – 0:53:00] Erik: But when he was growing up, it was just largemouth bass, maybe some pike, but nothing else.
[0:53:01 – 0:53:09] Erik: And this was also back in the day when there was a logging mill slash camp on the north side of the lake.
[0:53:09 – 0:53:11] Adam: Right, we referred to that earlier during our campsite reviews.
[0:53:12 – 0:53:12] Adam: Yeah.
[0:53:12 – 0:53:16] Adam: That first bay to the west, it was all big logging operations.
[0:53:16 – 0:53:24] Erik: Yeah, those first three campsites are connected by an old railroad grade, which if anybody hasn’t seen it, we’ll definitely post a link in the show notes.
[0:53:25 – 0:53:33] Erik: But there’s some really fun old aerial photography that the University of Minnesota has that you can do.
[0:53:34 – 0:53:37] Erik: You can really get it down to the decade.
[0:53:37 – 0:53:39] Erik: You can select if you want to see pictures from the 30s.
[0:53:40 – 0:54:00] Erik: 40s 50s i mean you can get it so you can just see the progression of what happened to the land but like looking back on it back in the 30s it’s crazy to see how much development there actually was in the boundary waters oh yeah old railroad lines and this yeah that kind of those pictures explain like you’re walking through the woods you see an old rusted out truck on the side of a portage
[0:54:00 – 0:54:04] Adam: You’re like, huh, how long ago did that get put there?
[0:54:04 – 0:54:05] Adam: Yeah, exactly.
[0:54:05 – 0:54:11] Adam: It kind of gives you a new perspective on the place, a new perspective on the time.
[0:54:11 – 0:54:18] Erik: Yeah, it gives you a good perspective on the time because you look at some of those pictures and you’re like, man, that’s like a small little town.
[0:54:18 – 0:54:19] Adam: Yeah, no doubt.
[0:54:19 – 0:54:21] Erik: And there’s nothing there now.
[0:54:21 – 0:54:22] Adam: You can’t tell.
[0:54:22 – 0:54:24] Adam: If you didn’t know that was there, you would never guess that.
[0:54:24 – 0:54:25] Erik: It’s just overtaken it.
[0:54:25 – 0:54:35] Erik: There’s maybe some old rusty hunks of steel in the woods, but, I mean, if you weren’t really looking for it or if you didn’t know, I mean, you would have no idea that there used to be a fully operational… Yeah, it’s pretty interesting.
[0:54:35 – 0:54:39] Adam: I want to know how they got those pictures, for one, but I guess we’re getting a little off topic.
[0:54:39 – 0:54:40] Adam: Was it blimps?
[0:54:40 – 0:54:40] Adam: Blimps.
[0:54:41 – 0:54:42] Adam: Was it… Dirigibles?
[0:54:42 – 0:54:58] Erik: pigeons yeah yeah pigeons i don’t know just a biplane with some dude hanging over the edge with some kind of uh early you know one of those pictures where you had to put the the hood over your head it’s got a hand crank somehow hand crank photography
[0:54:58 – 0:55:22] Erik: yeah so uh we’ll definitely post this like everyone every few months i find myself killing a few hours on that website with the the university of minnesota the historical photography especially for up here to see how things have yeah actually kind of taken a step back it was actually more developed in the 30s and 40s than it is now we’ve kind of let the wilderness have its way now again but
[0:55:23 – 0:55:26] Adam: That balance always ebbs and flows.
[0:55:26 – 0:55:30] Adam: We were talking in the previous episode on the telecommunications.
[0:55:30 – 0:55:32] Adam: They’re trying to butt their way in.
[0:55:32 – 0:55:37] Adam: There’s always some human influence in the park, but it’s in constant flux.
[0:55:37 – 0:55:46] Erik: But again, how that kind of relates to the question about the largemouth bass is, again, we will try to corroborate this with our sources.
[0:55:46 – 0:55:51] Erik: But from what I remember Don telling me is that there used to be largemouth bass in there.
[0:55:51 – 0:55:56] Erik: And the old logging mill on the north side of Caribou would dump largemouth.
[0:55:56 – 0:56:03] Erik: all of their sawdust, all of their trimmings and cuttings into the lake, and it kind of killed off the lake.
[0:56:04 – 0:56:04] Erik: Right.
[0:56:04 – 0:56:06] Erik: Basically everything.
[0:56:06 – 0:56:18] Erik: And then this was right around the time when the Bonjewaters was kind of coming around, and then the DNR came in and actually started stocking it with walleye, and then eventually smallmouth bass were kind of…
[0:56:18 – 0:56:19] Erik: Introduced.
[0:56:19 – 0:56:23] Erik: Introduced by Sigurd Olsson as being a sport fish,
[0:56:24 – 0:56:30] Erik: He didn’t necessarily realize how much, you know, how, how invasive that that was eventually going to become.
[0:56:31 – 0:56:34] Erik: That’s an argument for maybe another day, but yeah.
[0:56:34 – 0:56:37] Erik: So there was, there definitely used to be large mouth bass in there.
[0:56:38 – 0:56:38] Adam: Yeah.
[0:56:38 – 0:56:47] Adam: Like from what I remember him saying that there used to be like really nice weed beds and the, the water was kind of a different tinge to it.
[0:56:47 – 0:56:48] Adam: Like it was a little darker maybe.
[0:56:49 – 0:56:51] Adam: And then this sawdust came in there and like,
[0:56:52 – 0:56:57] Adam: Just kind of killed off the weed growth and made the water real cloudy and harmed the fishery.
[0:56:59 – 0:57:07] Adam: And that’s probably where we had this transition from the old days of largemouth bass into the new days of smallmouth.
[0:57:07 – 0:57:14] Erik: Yeah, and there still are a couple of lakes up here that I know that do have, like, regularly caught largemouth bass.
[0:57:14 – 0:57:17] Adam: I’m very excited we’re going to be able to talk about, briefly, about South Bean.
[0:57:18 – 0:57:20] Erik: South Bean is one, yeah.
[0:57:20 – 0:57:24] Erik: That’s the vegetable chain just off of Shoe Lake Road.
[0:57:24 – 0:57:44] Adam: um the other one that i know of for sure is uh crocodile lake crocodile river yeah i did that trip it’s a real connoisseur’s trip going south bean into the far end of the crocodile river which eventually feeds to crocodile lake and uh yeah we slammed the eight inch largemouth on south bean just slayed them
[0:57:44 – 0:58:06] Adam: you could stay there all day catching those largies and then we kind of had to bushwhack down to the crocodile river but we did not encounter any largemouth there but there you have it they’re pretty rare up here i know even like northern wisconsin i have some buddies have a place there and we get them regularly ice fishing even it’s a kind of a treat as an ice fisherman but uh
[0:58:07 – 0:58:10] Adam: Yeah, the small moth, you don’t ever really see them in the winter.
[0:58:10 – 0:58:11] Adam: They kind of just hunker down.
[0:58:11 – 0:58:15] Adam: But large moth, I think we’re just a little too far north for them now.
[0:58:16 – 0:58:40] Erik: yeah no and uh just to kind of finish up on what uh kyle was uh talking to us and and asking us about on uh on facebook you know um that’s kind of the the best that we can give you right now we’re definitely interested in maybe getting some more in-depth details from people that were around back in the day that uh that knew of largemouth bass but uh for now i think uh
[0:58:42 – 0:59:04] Erik: yeah i think uh that every lake up here kind of has a transition when it was a wild lake and then it kind of transitioned to being uh either stocked or managed for what works best in it but uh yeah so i think that uh we’ll probably do it for uh what we have to say about caribou yeah well thanks for the question kyle
[0:59:04 – 0:59:05] Erik: Yeah, definitely.
[0:59:05 – 0:59:06] Erik: Keep them coming.
[0:59:06 – 0:59:08] Erik: So we’re going to finish up.
[0:59:09 – 0:59:18] Erik: Don’t want to push it too much longer here on what is becoming kind of a longer episode, but we are going to finish up with introducing what we’re going to be.
[0:59:18 – 0:59:25] Erik: One of the things we’re going to be talking about next week with, with regards to hopefully some input from you all.
[0:59:26 – 0:59:31] Erik: And that is to try to boil it down into the fewest words possible is how do you sleep in the Bajie waters?
[0:59:32 – 0:59:34] Adam: Now what’s your preferred setup?
[0:59:34 – 0:59:35] Erik: What’s your preferred setup?
[0:59:35 – 0:59:40] Erik: You know, it’s not necessarily a one answer fits all.
[0:59:40 – 0:59:45] Erik: But, you know, I definitely have a go to for most of the year.
[0:59:45 – 0:59:51] Erik: And I have also evolved over the years from where I started and where I am now.
[0:59:52 – 0:59:55] Erik: And I feel like I am much more comfortable in my current setup.
[0:59:55 – 1:00:24] Adam: yeah I mean a big part of especially on longer trips too anybody can you know muscle it through a couple nights here and there no matter what your setup is but yeah the more you do it the more you want to try and be comfortable at night and I think there’s some neat tricks to it and we’ve kind of both kind of gone in the same direction but we’re interested to hear what you have to say what do you like tell us about your sleeping pads your sleeping bags that sort of stuff we’re going to be posting the question now
[1:00:24 – 1:00:25] Erik: We are.
[1:00:25 – 1:00:26] Erik: Or your hammocks.
[1:00:26 – 1:00:26] Erik: Hammocks.
[1:00:27 – 1:00:28] Adam: Hammocks.
[1:00:28 – 1:00:29] Adam: Spoiler.
[1:00:30 – 1:00:32] Erik: And yeah, so with that, we’ll wrap it up.
[1:00:33 – 1:00:40] Erik: If you’d like to let us know how you sleep in the Boundary Waters, send us an email at tumblehomecast at gmail.com.
[1:00:40 – 1:00:41] Erik: We’re also on Facebook.
[1:00:42 – 1:00:44] Erik: Tumble Home, a Boundary Waters podcast.
[1:00:45 – 1:00:50] Erik: You can find us posting our podcasts on Clearwater Canoe Outfitters.
[1:00:51 – 1:00:51] Erik: Otherwise…
[1:00:53 – 1:00:55] Erik: Any other ways you can get in touch with us at this point?
[1:00:55 – 1:00:55] Erik: I don’t think so.
[1:00:56 – 1:01:01] Adam: Well, we will be on Instagram under Tumble Home Cast as well in the near future.
[1:01:01 – 1:01:02] Adam: Yeah, in the near future.
[1:01:02 – 1:01:04] Adam: By the time this comes out, almost certainly.
[1:01:04 – 1:01:07] Erik: Yeah, so we’re working on that.
[1:01:07 – 1:01:09] Erik: But until next time, happy padding.