Smallies on the fly
WHEN THE NORTHERN PIKE WON'T PLAY THE GAME, ELY GUIDE JIM BLAUCH TURNS TO `FOOTBALLS' -- BOUNDARY WATERS SMALLMOUTH BASS

Author: Sam Cook/News Tribune Outdoors Writer

     Jim Blauch sent the orange and yellow popper toward a rocky point off the end of an island on this small lake. The fly landed lightly just inches from a rock protruding from the water.
     Blauch began stripping line in quick tugs. The fly advanced in abbreviated pops.
     Gloop.  Gloop.
     Before Blauch could make another tug, something swirled behind the popper. In a vacuum-like implosion, the fly disappeared and Blauch's line went taut.

This popper fly caught several 17-
to 19-inch smallmouth bass on a
trip near Ely in the Boundary
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

     The smallmouth bass tore for the depths off the point, then shot for the sky, leaving a trail of spray in the air. Once back in the water, the chunky bass dived again.
   ``He's so strong,'' Blauch said.
    He held on and finally brought the bass alongside the canoe. He landed it -- a thick 19-incher that would weigh right at 4 pounds. He removed the popper from its upper jaw, kissed the fish on the head and set it free.
     Blauch, a 41-year-old Ely fishing guide and resort owner, had brought four of us into the canoe country near Basswood Lake to sample the northern pike and smallmouth bass population on fly rods. Making the mid-June trip were Blauch's long-time friend Chris Parthun, 51, of Bemidji; Ray Lou, 60, of Marshall, Minn.; Mike Munford, 38, of Marshall; and me.

     For parts of two days, we had struggled to catch a few smallish pike. Now, fishing our third lake, we were after smallmouth -- ``footballs'' in Blauch's vernacular. He spends much of his time guiding anglers seeking Minnesota's marquee fish.
     ``I'm a smallmouth bass fisherman at heart, but I'm forced to fish for walleyes,'' Blauch said.
     His second cast, near the same rocky point, produced a 17-inch smallmouth. His third cast took one just over 19 inches. We worked along the cedar-choked shoreline until Blauch had caught and released probably a dozen bass. We hadn't paddled the canoe 100 feet.

Blauch holds a 19 1/4-inch smallmouth bass he caught
Monday on a lake north of Ely.
The fish hit an orange-and-
yellow popper fly.

     In the other canoe, our partners were having similar luck along another shoreline.
   We hoped to catch a few smaller bass to keep for dinner, but that was proving difficult. Finally, Blauch hooked one that felt smaller.
   ``An eater,'' he announced from the bow.
   Then the bass made one of those classic smallmouth runs.
   ``He's getting bigger,'' Blauch said. ``He's rippin' line.''
   It proved to be another 19-incher. Not an eater.
    ``This is what I live for,'' Blauch said, releasing the fish.

COLORFUL PAST

     Blauch grew up in Pennsylvania fishing smallmouth, but none this large. He found his way to Bemidji State University, where he met Parthun, and the two began traveling the canoe country in all seasons. They caught walleyes, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, pike and lake trout.
   Blauch moved to Ely and began guiding anglers in 1993. A man of eclectic interests, he also guided wolf ecology trips, canoe trips, dogsledding trips and skijoring trips.
   He met his wife, Joan, while guiding a canoe trip. Soon after they were married, they bought a resort on Farm Lake near Ely and named their resort, outfitting and guiding operation Moose Track Adventures. They have six cabins for guests and send canoeists into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park.
   Jim guides day and overnight trips into Basswood and other lakes. He often uses portage wheels to carry his 14-foot boat into Basswood for walleyes. On trips like ours, he uses the wheels on canoes. On other trips, he simply shoulders his canoes for trips into less-traveled lakes.
   Affable and colorful, Blauch has made lots of interesting trips, and he loves to share the stories. It would be a long trip before he ran out of tales. He's a superb camp cook. Our first night out, he cooked steaks over the fire and served them alongside Caesar salads and baked potatoes roasted on the fire grate.

TOO BIG TO EAT

     Now, on this bass lake, we were beginning to wonder if the fishing was too good. We needed to catch a few bass small enough to serve alongside Blauch's trademark hash browns for dinner that night.
   He finally caught a smaller bass, but even then Blauch had second thoughts.
   ``This is a 16-incher,'' he said, holding the bass. ``I just can't eat him. He's such a beautiful fish.''
   Back to the water it went. Parthun paddled over with Lou and Munford. They had caught 25 or 30 bass, they reported, and some of the smaller ones were on the stringer. The hash browns wouldn't be lonely.
   Our partners were looking on when Blauch hooked the largest fish of the afternoon. He knew immediately it was a bruiser, and when he eventually landed it, he made a mark on his paddle to verify its length. At camp that night, he would measure it at 19 3/4 inches.
   ``I haven't caught one this big for a while,'' he said, all smiles.

FLIES ARE HIS FAVORITE

   We could have caught these bass on spinning gear, certainly, but Blauch enjoys fly fishing for bass and pike.
   ``It's more interactive,'' he said, re-lighting his corn-cob pipe that night after supper. ``How do you explain it? You're interacting not only with the fish, but the fly itself. You're imitating natural prey.''

Fishing guide Jim Blauch of Ely fly-casts for northern pike during a trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Blauch and four others caught a few pike and several nice smallmouth bass during last week's three-day trip on lakes near Basswood Lake.