6/17/2026 – This past Sunday we had a busy day of canoe rental returns! Sundays are typically a bigger return day as folks round out their trips and get ready to return to work. On this recent Sunday, it was quite windy so there was a convergence of people on our return area all at about the same time early in the day. Some enterprising customers decided to use the support posts of our recently re-built return sign to stash their life jackets. We had 25 groups return on the 14th, many of them with multiple canoes! It was a fun all hands on deck getting everyone checked back in.

– Dan

6/16/26 – Sawbill’s own Damon “D-Dawg” Hennessy just completed a wonderful week of fly fishing in the Sawbill vicinity. He was generous enough write up a trip report to share herewith a few tips and tricks for early season fly fishing in the Boundary Waters.

In early Sept 2025 I had a permit and a fly fishing focused trip planned with a buddy flying in
from Portland OR. Sadly my obsessive watching of the weather in the days leading to our trip
did nothing to halt a brutal drop in temps and 45MPH winds from the north on the very day we
were to shove off. With no real flexibility in our schedules and seemingly no let up in the winds
for many days we made to tough decision to bail entirely. Bummer. So when permits for 2026
came online I jumped on one for early June. We are both fairly obsessed with catching
smallmouth bass and pike on fly rods, especially on the surface, and early June is the prime
time to do this.

Lo and behold, this time the weather cooperated, the airlines cooperated, and when the day
finally came we shoved off with our fly rods ready to chase fish.

I love canoeing the BWCA, but let’s face it, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of fishing from a
sparkly bass boat, or even a decent fishing specific kayak, you know that fishing from a canoe
is less than optimal. There’s the wind… the instability… the constant hassle of paddling back
to retrieve snags. Now imagine all that plus fly fishing. It can be downright ugly. Like that
episode of “I Love Lucy” when Lucy and Ethel work the assembly line at the chocolate factory.
Trust me, look it up on YouTube, it’s a classic.

To avoid such comedy my partner and I agreed on a plan: paddler in the back, caster in the
front. Switch when it seems fair. We talked strategies beforehand and agreed on a few basics.
Mostly how to position the nose of the canoe in a place where the guy in the back doesn’t run
the risk of catching a hook in the back of the head. We are both righties so this meant casting
towards shore at roughly the 11 o’clock position.

We were only going a few lakes in and base camping so we could focus on figuring out the
lake we were on and a few surrounding lake day trips. The base camp lake we chose had lots
of spots to get out of wind and was big enough to give us a variety of spots to work.

OK, onto the fishing! I think the biggest surprise for both of us was how much we enjoyed the
paddler part of the fishing. It was way more of a team effort than either of us could have
predicted. As paddler all your senses have to be fully engaged as you are watching the water
for likely hiding places behind trees and rocks, noticing subtle wind shifts and listening for fish
along the bank that are actively chasing food. You’re also constantly tweaking the canoe
position and trying to maintain position and angle in the wind. We caught fish along rocky
banks (think bowling ball sized rocks) that had deep water adjacent, but also some fish in soft
bottom areas and some in expansive flats. And of course they were in the classic spots, behind
bigger rocks, in wood piles and near areas of wind blown current. The most fun part was sight
fishing for bass. We caught plenty of fish who tipped off their location with an aggressive swirl
as we were quietly approaching an area. Then we’d glide into place knowing you only had one
real shot to drop your fly in the right spot. The teamwork that went into these moments made it
super fun. Gear wise we had a 6 weight rod with floating line and an 8 weight rod with a
floating line and a sink tip line. Mostly we used the 6 weight and as far as flies we caught 98
percent of the fish on top water flies, either a Boogle Bug or Mr. Wiggly. (I don’t name these
things, I just fish em). At some point on day two we decided to smash the barbs on all the flies
to make releasing faster, we may have had few fish shake off after that policy change but I feel
like it’s the thing to do for catch and release fishing.

If you’re new to fly fishing and would like to try it don’t expect to learn it on a week long canoe
trip. Get a rod and practice casting in your yard, then catch some bluegill off a dock
somewhere. Once you can throw bigger flies with some accuracy you are ready. Bass are
willing but you need to be a pretty good caster to get the fly in a place where you can catch
fish. And make sure you’ve got a good paddling partner in the back!

D-Dawg

6/10/26 – The Forest Service has announced that the campfire restriction within the BWCA Wilderness is going to be lifted beginning on June 12. Therefore, as of the morning of June 12, there will be no burning restrictions inside the Wilderness (nor anywhere on the Superior National Forest).

We’ve been enjoying some rain showers and higher humidity resulting in a lot of green up recently and lots of signs of summer. Our lilac bush is finally blooming and many other early summer ephemerals are out and about. Also, there has been a big dragonfly hatch in recent days, putting a dent in the pesky bugs. The robin’s nest visible right out our second floor window is active with three hatchlings that are growing every day. It is very fun to see the excited beaks rising up and opening for a food delivery. There is even an industrious robin that started building a nest on a little container mounted on the exterior of the workshop.

-Dan

6/6/26 – Calling all former Sawbill Crew members! We are about a month out from our 70th (that’s right, 70!) reunion party on July 10 and 11th. If you hadn’t heard about it yet, consider this your invite and put it on your calendar! If you are still connected with other former Crew Members, please reach out to them and let them know. With 70 years worth of Crew, we need help spreading the word! Bill’s old rolodex doesn’t have everyone’s number in it.

Please send an email to info@sawbill.com to let us know you are coming and to get more details about the event.

We hope to see many of you soon!

– Dan

6/5/26 – The Forest Service announced a fire ban effective June 6th for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This means that within the Wilderness boundary, no campfires nor any burning device that lacks an ‘on-off’ switch are allowed. Propane camp stoves ect, that can be turned on and off will continue to be allowed.

The order is in effect from June 6 through June 30 unless rescinded sooner or extended.

Areas outside of the Wilderness such as the Sawbill Lake National Forest Campground and the Crescent Lake National Forest Campground are not currently under a restriction, so campfires and charcoal grills remain allowed.

Of course with the dry and warm weather in the forecast, additional caution and diligence when maintaining a fire is a must.

We’ll continue to provide updates when and if things change.

-Dan

6/3/26 – This passed weekend former Sawbill Crew member (ca 2015 – 2018), Meg Price, came to visit and brought her son Adam up for the first time (future Sawbill Crew 2041). Adam, Meg and her Dad, Brian, capitalized on a perfect day to go for a nice paddle. They were also thoroughly entertained by Kit and Sig and their kickball!

Since leaving the Sawbill Crew, Meg has become an educator in southern Minnesota, where she serves in the high demand roll of speech and language pathologist. Meg follows in her Dad’s footsteps who is just rounding out a long career as a school psychologist.

It was so great to see Meg again and to meet her son.

-Dan

6/1/26 – Recently the Forest Service published their BWCA Permit and Use Visitor report for 2025 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/passes/permit-and-visitor-use-report), and one issue that is continuing the catch our eye are the number of cancellations and no-shows. In recent years, we have seen a tendency towards people booking permits on the annual “Go-Live” day, the day in January when all of the permits become available for the season. In the broader history, the behavior was different, but for a handful of years now, the trend has clearly changed. Along with this change has come a dramatic increase in permit cancellations and no-shows. The end result is many potential permits go unused and hopeful visitors get left on the sidelines.

This recent Minnesota Star Tribune report by Bob Timmons dives into the issue, including several insights from our own Clare Shirley.

https://www.startribune.com/why-are-cancellations-in-the-boundary-waters-on-the-rise-its-complicated/601843425

-Dan

5/30/26 – One of the most reliable and understated gear items in our outfitting department is getting upgraded. The humble Therma-rest inflatable sleeping pad has been the standard bearer innovation in sleeping pads since the evolution from the closed cell foam pad. Over the years, the technology has remained largely the same; a durable fabric shell with a simple valve for inflating. As such, and due to its relatively mild wear and tear, we have not needed to turn over our stock much over the years. Unlike most of our other gear items that get turned over much more regularly (ie, 3 years for canoes), we have some Therma-rests that are just fine after 20 years.

But, the technology has evolved enough at this point making wider and thicker pads are more common. They are engineered well and utilize materials that allow them to still pack down pretty small.

So, out with our trusty Trail Pros for the new Trail Pro Max Wide. These new pads will hopefully have the same reliability as their predecessors and make sleeping on the ground in the Wilderness, just that much sweeter.

Look for the retired pads for sale in our store this summer, on our online store and at the Duluth Gear Exchange in Duluth.

-Dan

5/26/2026 – This week potentially marks the start of the Forest Services prescribed burns within the Kawishiwi Lakes Roadless Area (KLRA) and surrounding lands around Sawbill. The KLRA includes a total of 1,913 acres of land split into two “units”, with a bit just off of the Sawbill trail. Each unit having a designated reason and purpose to their burn. We take mention of this prescribed burn for a few reasons as it may sound intimidating or fearful. These burns are only executed with the most ideal conditions. We of course know the dangers of what wildfires can do if loss of control were to take place, however these prescribed burns are for mitigating that danger. For Unit 1, which is 330 acres, there will be a low to moderate intensity fire beneath the mature red and white pines in the area. Specifically here the goal is to enhance the growing conditions and to protect the canopy trees through reducing the fuel from the balsam fir or ladder fuel elements. Secondly, in Unit 2 it will be higher intensity fire to improve the habitat conditions for moose. By having this higher intensity flame go through this region it creates a more diverse age range of the trees thus providing new browse for the moose. Each of these burns is monitored closely with fire staff using precise ignition to start them through to the end when it is declared out. These burns will not cause any closures of recreation sites or roadways. If the smoke is deemed to cause visibility issues then warnings would be placed in those designated places. The jist is this – if you are to come out to Sawbill in the next week or so you may see a number of Forest Service vehicles or even the flames themselves off of the Sawbill trail, it is nothing to be of concerned with, rather something to spark intrigue on why it is happening! All good things for our wildlife friends and this is simply to make their habitats less likely to be a landscape for future wildfires.

-Annika

5/23/26 – The Hansen family has been up to so much as of late! The publishing of a new book titled She Does, written about the local business owners along the North Shore who are also mothers features our very own Clare Shirley. This publication gives insight into the powerful and inspirational journeys of these ladies. If you were to become any more curious about exactly what this book is as a whole you can order it directly from their website, https://she-does.org/book, or you can find it in the store here at Sawbill. You are an inspiration to all of us Clare!

In other news, a groundbreaking ceremony for Cook County Schools ISD 166 remodel is pictured below. School board chair Dan Shirley gives a speech with State Representative Roger Skraba, State Senator Grant Hauschild, Grand Marais Mayor Tracy Benson, and Grand Portage Tribal Council Member Toby Stephens. Dan is proud of the hard work put in to planning and funding this project and grateful to the citizens of Cook County for voting to pass two referendums to support our local students!

Along with all of that, the Hjørdis, for which Bill is a Captain, has started taking reservations for this season! The iconic boat offers daily sailing and you can run up a chat with the very finest Bill while you sail around Lake Superior. Their website is found here to make any reservations https://northhouse.org/programs/daily-sailing ! He’d love to be joined by any of our Sawbill friends out on the water!

– Annika