October 27th, 2011
Published by: mooresb
Sisters in the Mist By Robert W. Butche October 27th, 2011
This is the story of two streams that ply the forests and caress the marshes of Minnesota's north woods country.
One of them, the Mississippi, begins at Lake Itasca between Park Rapids and Bemidji. The other, the Crow Wing, has similarly humble origins in the marshlands west of giant Leech Lake in the heart of Paul Bunyan Country near Akeley. On summer mornings these two streams, and dozens of others that build the Mississippi in the far north woods, are in many ways indistinguishable -- eternal sisters in the mist.
On a bright sunny morn, just as the sun rose 'oer a mile long field of wild rice nurtured by the gentle current of the Crow Wing, Keith and I headed for a new adventure -- our first fishing foray upstream from the Bear's Den in the deep cold waters of 7th Crow Wing lake. Keith brought his favorite Jon Boat some five hundred miles from his home on Gages lake in far northern Illinois that spring so we could fish on a lake not accessible to the S.S. Lois, his sturdy, reliable and far larger pontoon boat. Once we had our gear stowed in the boat, we sat knee to knee as he started the outboard in a flume of gray smoke accentuated by the familiar roar of the outboard. Moments later, bow to the sun, we smartly crossed the lake and headed for the mouth of the Crow Wing where it connects the 6th and 7th lakes. In the brightness of the morning sun we soon entered the shallow blue waters that meandered through the golden rice in gentle, undulating, bends. At only two to three feet deep, we could swatch schools of fish darting in every which direction as our Jon Boat slowly wound through a mile of golden rice stalks.
Although the Crow Wing and the Mississippi begin in marshy areas barely thirty miles from one another, they join together some seventy five miles downstream at the beautiful Crow Wing State Park at Fort Ripley. No matter the Mississippi is the more famous, Minnesota's Crow Wing river is one of the most beautiful on the North American continent. Along the way, we passed several young Eagles perched in the trees along the north side of the marsh, eyeing their domain and no doubt planning on a breakfast of fresh caught perch. One of them screeched several times as we approached, perhaps to remind us that this place was their domain and not the lawful property of balding fisherman who ebb and flow annually with the summer solstice.
From the moment it trickles out of the spring fed marshes north of Akeley, the Crow Wing flows nearly 80 miles through a dozen beautiful lakes -- connecting each by way of serpentine water flows that meander through lush forest country and beautiful fields of wild rice that rise from its rich waters in the August heat.
Before long we approached the corrugated tube where the Crow Wing flows under highway 13. Soon the bright light of day was subdued as Keith steered the Jon Boat through the tube and into the wild rice marsh on the other side of the road at the southwest end of 7th Crow Wing lake.
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