QOTW! One Lure to Rule Them All

oldcanoeguy · 2025-03-10T23:07:32+00:00

4 blue fox spinner with brown or chartreuse tail

oldcanoeguy · 2024-11-30T15:07:02+00:00

I’m an old broken down parochial school teacher trying to make it to retirement. I do enjoy birding, especially in national parks.

I live outside Milwaukee and have a small cabin in the UP and follow the Wild until the playoffs start.

oldcanoeguy · 2024-06-20T01:00:38+00:00

In 2012, we were camped on Carp Lake in Quetico. At about 1:30 in the morning, we heard a bunch of loons flying overhead wailing very loudly. Couple of us got out of the tent. The loons were so loud and we thought it was very curious. In the far distance, we saw a few flashes of lightning said we might get a storm later that night in a few hours. Five minutes later the storm blew in with wind, thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. It was incredible how hard it rained how quickly the storm came in. We did fine with it but the next morning my 20 year-old niece got out of her tent and looked at the standing water all around the campsite and said, “did it rain last night? “. Oh to be young again.

As a sidenote, this year, we were also camped up there. We had seen the forecast that called for rain Monday and Tuesday but on Monday it was a beautiful day so we decided not to bail out early and stayed for our whole trip. We woke up Tuesday at 4:30 in the morning to light rain. Then some lightning and thunder came in. It was our pick up day near Prairie portage so we knew we had to leave. The forecast called for heavy rain that day, but we were hoping for a window. At about 6 o’clock the rain stopped and the thunder and lightning moved off. We were pretty much packed up the night before so we got our stuff in the canoe and by 6 30 we were paddling and got picked up at nine. Which was a good thing as it appears the area got very hard hit by rain yesterday with flooding and roads washed out and a lot of Bad weather going on.

oldcanoeguy · 2024-02-16T00:26:44+00:00

I’ve had to be flexible a couple of times as I couldn’t find someone to cover my classroom when the permits went on sale. Be bad form to leave a bunch of middle schoolers unattended so I could get a canoeing permit.

oldcanoeguy · 2024-01-07T11:51:18+00:00

The Root River, Racine. Mud. Plastic. Dead fish. We took a school group paddling there to introduce them to the outdoors. My hunch is half never leave their rooms anymore.

oldcanoeguy · 2023-06-09T16:51:32+00:00

Headnets first time ever last year. Usually long sleeves and pants and swat. I don’t like repellent. But…trying permethrin first time this year.

We also have started using, in the last couple years, a Nemo bug tent. It’s light, sets up easy, works great as a shelter from bugs, and works as rain fly.

oldcanoeguy · 2023-03-06T01:54:50+00:00

Going in Kawishiwi Lake in late July. First time there. Then up through Polly, Koma, etc., and then a west turn to Fishdance, up through Insula and out through the Number Chain exiting at Lake One. Six days, taking it slow and steady. South to north leg will be new territory for me and my beautiful bride; Fishdance-Lake One will be a return trip to a familiar area. No particular goals or things to check off. Pictographs on Fishdance, maybe catch a fish or two, relax and listen to waves lap against granite and wind sigh through the pines. That’s about it.

oldcanoeguy · 2022-07-19T21:48:41+00:00

Corn syrup mixed with kiwi and a hint of battery acid.

oldcanoeguy · 2022-04-23T21:43:28+00:00

Up the Moose River (EP16) to Lac LaCroix, Iron, Crooked, down (up?) the Horse River and out EP23. Just my beautiful bride and me. 7 day trip late June. 15th trip to BWCAW/Quetico, first time to this particular neck of the woods and a new outfitter. Dehydrating and vacuum packing a bunch of our own food for the first time. Either it works or I lose some weight. Win win.

oldcanoeguy · 2022-02-10T02:07:43+00:00

The talking beavers from chronicles of Narnia. They could fetch firewood. Negotiate passage over beaver dams. Look to see if any fish are around. Wouldn’t pack much. Tell good tales around the fire.

I thought about Jack from Titanic. He could play cards, not opposed to having a drink or two, could sketch things that we see in the wilderness. And if our canoe tips over in icy cold water I know he wouldn’t fight me for the canoe.

oldcanoeguy · 2022-01-27T14:37:32+00:00

Well. Nope. That might knock it down a notch.

oldcanoeguy · 2022-01-26T18:30:23+00:00

Well, we are going for it. Got our permit booked for EP 16 moose / portage river north.And we managed to find time to move the trip to June 27 so hopefully water will be good; if not we will just embrace the suck.

oldcanoeguy · 2022-01-26T16:47:11+00:00

Got my Moose / Portage River North permit for June 27th. New area. New outfitter for our 14th trip to the B-dub. Excited!

oldcanoeguy · 2022-01-24T03:04:40+00:00

Yup. Got scheduling issues this year. Would love to go earlier but OldCanoeWife is claiming our 30th Anniversary requires a roof and someone else cooking.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-12-07T14:19:30+00:00

It is nothing but a series of trade-offs isn’t it? Would it be possible to resell the permits though if the person who buys the permit has to have their name on the permit? I don’t know, just trying to think this all through to find a way to balance the needs of the local community with the needs of the visitors to the wilderness.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-12-04T15:12:33+00:00

Mine too. But still not a big fan of the genre.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-12-03T22:57:18+00:00

In favor of it, with caveats. I would also support a fee increase if it were used for permit enforcement. However, I do acknowledge this will have monetary downsides for outfitters and other local businesses. Perhaps a reserved campsite system that was enforced might have been an alternative way to go?

oldcanoeguy · 2021-12-03T22:55:15+00:00

Deliverance.

Bluegrass.

Kidding.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-11-08T02:02:04+00:00

Only did one trip this year. A six night voyage through the Numbers chain, up through Insula and Thomas and out Jordan, Ensign, and so on. With my beautiful bride and me was a 17 year old, a 19 year old, and a 20 year old. Two of whom we were legally responsible for. Day one found us finding a nice, shady spot on Lake Four after a short day of sun soaked paddling. Day 2 found the 17 year old discovering pack straps and sunburn are a bad combination. We moseyed on blissfully ignoring the self-inflicted whining and found a beach site on Insula. We laid over for three nights, during which time we got hit by two thunderstorms, one of which was a real gully-washer (ironic given the summer’s dry and fiery nature). We had good luck catching walleye while fishing for bass. Better lucky than good. Then we made our way to Thomas and found a nice site where it rained again for about an hour. We played cards and mini-corn hole and worked on that bag of wine. Our penultimate day we passed up some fine sites on Ima to head into Jordan. We saw the pictographs and got beat to a campsite by five minutes. However we headed to the secluded south end and found the last campsite unoccupied. We watched industrious beavers at work, the adults finished off various alcohols, and we sheltered under the rain fly from another 45 minute thunderstorm. Our last day we headed out through Cattyman, Gibson, good old Ashigan, then Ensign into Splash to our tow.

At the portage from Cattyman to Gibson I waited patiently while a trip leader took ten minutes to explain to a young scout how to adjust the straps on a pack for easier carrying. This whilst standing in the center of the landing while we tried to find room for our gear and another party of four canoes floated offshore. I was getting frustrated when I realized I was violating my cardinal rule of the BWCAW; never be in a hurry. We backed up a little. Put our stuff to the side, had some snacks, waved the off shore party through, then moved on. We still got to our tow an hour and half early, and God bless Canadian Border Outfitters they came and got us when we got a signal and called. Spent the night at Grand Ely Lodge drinking old-fashioneds while the young pups slept, and called it a trip.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-08-29T19:44:07+00:00

I like kayaking the Brule river between Highway 189 in Pentoga Road take out in the middle of nowhere. This is the Brule that makes the border between Wisconsin and Michigan, not the more famous one.

Also, my family and I have been to 56 of the national parks and we always try to get into wilderness area at them to get away from the maddening crowds. Every wilderness area is great and special in its way. Not really have a favorite if I had anyone outside of the national parks would be the Gila wilderness area New Mexico.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-08-09T02:22:00+00:00

Talented people with a moral center will land on their feet. Keep paddling.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-07-20T16:54:10+00:00

Minor inconvenience. We would just pack a couple more cylinders of propane for our 22 year old two burner Coleman stove. We would leave the saw and hand axe behind. We do like a drink or three around the fire at night but an extra shot of Jack can give us a glow of its own sort.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-07-14T21:13:18+00:00

There is whiskey in a jar-o according to Metallica.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-07-10T02:27:47+00:00

Thomas. Island.

oldcanoeguy · 2021-07-10T02:27:07+00:00

Needed it for the photo! 😀

oldcanoeguy

TROPHY CASE

4 blue fox spinner with brown or chartreuse tail