Fall Pike in the Boundary Waters with Hansi Johnson

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness spans 1.1M acres along the U.S.-Canada border within the Superior National Forest. One of the largest designated wilderness areas in the lower 48, and the most visited, the BWCA has found itself at ground zero in a number of recent resource extraction and legislative battles. The outcome of these battles is still to be determined and threatens the health of and access to this pristine wilderness—not just for the sportsmen and women that flock to its woods and waters every year, but the flora and fauna that call it home every day. Among the charismatic species dwelling in the BWCA is the hallowed northern pike, whose active patrol of those cold, clear waters in these late months make them a favorite target for hearty anglers.

RIO: You’re a native Minnesotan so we’ll assume you’re were born with a rod in hand, but when did the passion for fly fishing take over?

Hansi: I was raised in SE Minnesota in the Driftless Region and was lucky to have parents who so valued being outside that they built a house on a bluff above a Driftless trout stream in a rural valley. I started fishing when I was just a kid with a spinning rod but was turned on to fly fishing at 14 by my grandfather and the local Trout Unlimited Chapter. During my college years, I continued to dabble in fly fishing but other interests like backcountry skiing and mountain biking took over. That said, later in life when I moved back to Minnesota- I dove back into fly fishing head first and it's been my main passion for the past decade plus. One thing I love about fly fishing, and fishing in general I guess, is that it also marries my other passions...I love to ride my bike into a remote lake or stream or ski or paddle into the BWCA in search of fish.

RIO: When did you settle down in Duluth and how did that change your outdoor pursuits? Was the draw to Duluth fueled in part by its vicinity to BWCA or was its easy access just a happy byproduct of settling in that part of the state?

Hansi: I've left Duluth and returned three different times in my life, the last time being about 20 years ago. Duluth is in a geographic sweet spot when it comes to wilderness and adventure access. I love it because right in the city or within minutes you have world-class paddling, mountain biking and Nordic skiing, but you also have amazing warm and cold water fisheries. Lake Superior is an untapped resource when it comes to lake trout, brown trout, steelhead and salmon, not to mention pike and smallmouth bass.

The St. Louis River flows through Duluth and offers trophy smallmouth and musky water and right in town. Within a short drive you have the south shore of Lake Superior and Bayfield Peninsula/Chequamegon Bay, plus the south shore trout streams like The Brule. Then going north, you have easy access to Superior National Forest, and of course, really easy access to the BWCA. It's not unheard of to head up into the wilderness for a day trip and some killer multi-species fly fishing. In fact, during Covid I learned that I could get up and back to my favorite BWCA Gunflint Trail lake on just one tank of gas—complete social distancing and no gas station stop!

The last time I moved back to Duluth I was an independent regional sales rep for Wenonah Canoes. Having world class paddling nearby in the BWCA and sea kayaking literally next door in Lake Superior was like being a kid in living and working in a candy shop. So, yes, I moved to Duluth for the access! While the region is certainly being discovered by more people, I still (at this point, at least) find myself totally alone on the water catching fish within 30 minutes of downtown.

RIO: Your board work with SFBW, how does it benefit from your day job at MLT and what projects at SFBW would you want outdoorsmen and women to know about?

Hansi: The board at SFBW is incredibly strong and the folks on it bring such a broad range of experience that I am humbled to be on it, honestly. I do think the organizational and fundraising skills I have developed at MLT have been valuable to my board work with SFBW.

The staff at SFBW have a lot of irons in the fire. The biggest being the work they are doing to push back on the Twin Metals Copper Sulfide Mine on Birch Lake in the Kawishiwi Watershed. More broadly, the SFBW is also starting to partner with land managers involved in or near the Superior National Forest to help with maintenance backlogs as well as day-to-day needs of the wilderness following the explosion of visitors since the pandemic.

More recently, Mike Lee's latest legislation to essentially gain access to the northern border to add border patrol installations and roads is on our radar. This is just the latest angle of attack on our public lands and once that access is gained the concept of the BWCA as a true wilderness is dead, so we need to stop it.

RIO: One of the most charismatic species calling that wilderness home is the storied northern pike. What is it about BWCA pike and when are you most amped to paddle after them with a fly rod?

Hansi: The northern pike is synonymous with Minnesota. Trophy pike in Minnesota live in the BWCA because of a relative lack of pressure and an ecosystem that can produce the forage and the conditions for greatness. But, just because big fish exist in a pristine place it doesn’t mean they are easy to catch.

The pike has a couple of times every season when they are more willing to dance with anglers and it is those times when I gear up and head into the wilderness. Spring is when pike are coming off the spawn and need to re-fuel and fall is when they are gorging to sustain themselves for the long Minnesota winter. My favorite time to target them is in the fall because they are aggressively putting on that winter weight and they tend to stack up in easy-to-find locations that are within reach of a fly rod.

This means you can toss big streamers to big fish with consistently big and explosive results. It's not a bad thing either that fall in the BWCA means no bugs and a lot less people. As summer winds down and deep fall hits, the pike move onto weed lines and shallows and feast on bait fish and just about anything else they can put in their mouths. Bring a long-nosed pliers and a jaw-spreader because fall pike eats are aggressive and deep.

This pike flurry lasts until the water temps plummet and the ice begins to form. Fishing for pike into mid- to late-November is common and I wholeheartedly encourage it.

RIO: Let's talk gear. When you're heading out for late-season pike how are you arming yourself to do battle?

Hansi: My go to BWCA pike set up is a Redington Predator 9 weight, with a RIO Elite Predator fly line. I tend to bring both a floating line as well as a sink tip (FIS3) to make sure I can get more buoyant flies down into the water column.

I love the RIO Big Nasty leaders and tippet. I go through so much RIO Wire Bite that I tend to stock up with multiple spools every spring and finish them off in the fall. In the BWCA I use the wire bite even when not fishing pike as there are so many pike everywhere that inevitably one will hit my fly and chew it off. I see RIO wire bite as insurance and use it 90% of the time I am fishing in the BWCA (other than when I am targeting Lake Trout and Brook Trout etc).

RIO: What’s your longest excursion into the BWCA and have you ever tossed a bike into a canoe alongside your rods?

Hansi: Wheels are not allowed in the BWCA of any sort, the same for rowing rigs of all things! So while I have not been able to do any bike adventures in the BWCA, I've used my bike to get to many other remote fishing waters across the state. I did do a four-day ice skate with a buddy on a low snow year and ice fished for lake trout on a bunch of lakes that get nearly zero winter pressure.

My longest trip into the BWCA proper is only 14-day fishing trip, but I have done a 30-dayer in Canada. It's easy to focus on the BWCA, but it's really only a small region of lakes that go all the way north to Hudson Bay. In that larger area, I have done many trips in the Quetico, Wabakimi Wilderness, Woodland Caribou Wilderness, as well as Voyageur National Park.

Even though I work with many others to advocate for the BWCA, all of these places are facing severe threats and while we might try to draw borders around these places, they are all interconnected.