Late August on Seagull

It is kids' week at Seagull.  Lots of  families are fitting in their last trip of the summer before school starts.  Levi in the photo above was busy catching crayfish at the dock last night.  One pinched his finger so he was out diligently this morning on the dock with his glove on hunting again. 

The mornings have been cool and crisp. It is 70 degrees at the moment.  This morning Seagull Lake was like a mirror and paddlers had a great start to their trip as a result.  In addition, the starry night sky has been incredible.  Think about one last journey to the Northwoods before you get too busy. 

We have started our reduced fall hours now and are open from 7am to 5pm daily.  Some of our summer staff has gone back to college.  We will be open for rentals through the month of September so there is still time!
Deb

Lakers on Seagull

Some real nice Lake Trout are being pulled out of Seagull and Saganaga. One of the best ways to find them is to troll. Use about 2oz of weight with about a 3'-6' leader and a silver spoon. They are in 80' of water suspended about 50'-60' of water. So you want to set if for 35'-50' of water because they will come up to bite it. Once you find them you can jig for them with either a spoon or a jig head with a minnow.

If your looking to catch some Walleyes you need to start going deeper now. They're sitting in about 18'-25' of water. Just like always a basic slip bobber and leech is the way to go. You can also try trolling for them with a crawler harness and a worm/night crawler. Bass have been hitting mostly when you are fishing for Walleye. This a great fish to target if you are bringing the kids or just want to have some fun catching fish. When it comes to Pike there hasn't been to much news. But I'm sure if you throw something shiny near some weeds you'll pick up a few.

Family Bonding at Seagull Outfitters

The Northwoods is a great place to make everlasting memories. August is a perfect time to embark into the Boundary Waters. The waters perfect for swimming, the fishing's great, and the temperature is ideal! Many customers have been taking advantage of this by bringing their children on their 1st or 21st trip together. The Northwoods is a perfect time for you to teach your child life lessons and allow them to teach you a few things as well. Overall, the bonding is the most prominent part to parent/child trip into the Northwoods. The memories will last a lifetime and you will create a bond that cannot be broken.

Book your trip before the kids head back to school... it's never too late at Seagull Outfitters! Check out our special interest packages on our website at http://www.seagulloutfitters.com/special.htm for more details on Father/Daughter, Father/Son, Mother/Son, or Mother/Daughter packages. Let us know how we can assist you in making the trip of a lifetime with a new paddling partner.

Katelyn



August Rush

August is a very busy time in the canoe country and at Seagull Outfitters. We were busy in the first few days counting canoes on our charts to make sure we had all of our parties accounted for! The busy start still continues!... We have had many large parties entering the water and coming off in the past few days. The picture below shows our parking lot in the prime time of the season... packed!! We had to use overflow parking at our main store location. This pictures shows vehicles from all over the map-- California to Texas to Maryland to Scotland!

There is still plenty of time to fit in a late August or Septemeber trip! Don't miss your chance to book a Fall Colors Trip. Follow onto our website at http://www.seagulloutfitters.com/pdf/fall.pdf for a Completely Outfitted Fall Color trip anywhere in the Boundary Waters! We hope to hear from you!!

Katelyn

A Very Berry Time!

It is once again berry season in the Northwoods! The raspberries and blueberries have hit their peak. Many of our customers are finding mass amounts of berries on portage trails, behind campsites, and on hiking trails. With two recent fires in the area, the Cavity Lake fire of 2006 and the Ham Lake of 2007, the nutrients are rich and helping to blossom the bushes. Go claim your secret spot before someone steals it! Feel free to share your spot with me :)

Cherry Lake Snapping Turtle

Many of our customers visit the beautiful Cherry Lake. A favored spot on the lake for many is the campsite right in the narrows. This campsite offers great tent spots, perfect swimming spots, and great fishing right from camp. However, it is not only humans favorite spot, it is also "Charlene" or "Jimmy" the snapping turtles favorite spot. Back to back days we had parties off the water saying they saw this huge snapping turtle in Cherry Lake that kept roaming the waters around the campsite. One party named the turtle "Charlene" and the other "Jimmy."

Parties that camped there before them must also have had problems with "Charlene/Jimmy" as well because they explained someone had built a big livewell for the fish they caught and the snapper would roam around it from side to side trying to figure out how to get in. One party fed the turtle some sausage and it happily came close to them and ate the whole thing.

In the cold winters the Boundary Waters endures, these snapping turtles go deep down into the leaves and mud at the bottom of a lake and let themselves get cold. Their bodies get so cold that everything slows down and they no longer need to eat. Their heart slows down to beating once every few minutes. Because their bodies are running at such a slow speed, they do not need hardly any oxygen and they stop breathing through their lungs. They get the small amount of oxygen they need through water. It sinks in through some specialized skin cells that are just inside the tail opening. Snapping turtles can live like this for months.



Katelyn