Thursday, September 04, 2008 We rise early and have a “no cook” breakfast (power bars, orange Gatorade and fruit snacks). We are on the water by 9 AM. The paddle to the falls takes about an hour. We troll shad raps the entire way and as we near the falls and Canadian water, we reel in. I discover that I have a small (about 12”) walleye hooked…too small to even put a noticeable bend in my rod. We reel in, but leave the depthfinder on. As we pass the last point on the US side, we begin to mark fish in 30 to 35 feet of water. We decide to wait and fish that area on the way out. As we paddle our way upstream, we see two canoes coming through a small set of rapids, to the right of a small island. We head to the left of the island, but quickly realize that we won’t be able to paddle through there. We head back around to the opposite side and find that will be difficult as well. Eventually, we pull up to a rock outcropping, unload our packs and carry the canoe across to calmer water. We paddle up and through the next set of rapids. We pull over into calmer water and realize that we’re not going to be able to paddle any further. I’m not thinking and/or not paying close enough attention, because I don’t realize that there is a portage to the falls. We’re very close to the portage and we actually don’t realize it until we’re home. I look at pictures and see the portage behind us. We depart, assuming that we are being turned back because of low water. This will become our reason to make another trip here in the near future. We paddle back towards Iron Lake and as we get a short way, we begin to mark fish in 30 to 35 feet of water. We drop anchor and tie on jigs with leeches. It’s about 11 AM. We catch fish immediately. We reel in 6 walleye (all between 12” and 14”) in about 20 minutes and then I catch the largest crappie I have ever seen. ..between 16” and 17”. We catch a few more crappie and the things shut down. We reel in and start our trip to LLC. It’s almost 12:15PM. We reach bottle portage about 2 PM and as we enter LLC we see multiple motor boats. The first is a tow boat from Zup’s, but there are a few fishing boats out as well. We find a campsite near Tiger Bay and pull in at about 3:45PM. Jamie cooks Mac & cheese with hash browns, while I set up our tent. We have a great supper and after cleaning up, decide to fish for the last hour of daylight. Today was mostly cloudy with some sunshine mixed in, but it is quickly cooling off as daylight fades. We stay close to camp and finally turn in at about 8PM to read and fall asleep.