Friday, July 04, 2008 Lost Bay – Burke Lake

The sun wasn’t even up yet and already it’s another perfect morning, picture perfect and the camera lens was steamed up again. (Note to self- get a waterproof camera.) We had some time, and I really liked this place, so we enjoyed a paddle around the lake and fished as the sun came up. The lake was like glass, the surface showed evidence of the mayfly massacre that had taken place last night, I guess the fish don’t eat the wings, millions of them floated everywhere.

It looks like the fish got their fill, the baits we threw out last night with much success got no attention today. We eventually found a place where the Northerns were still active. An eagle perched above watched inquisitively as we trolled back and forth under him and caught a Northern on every pass. By the time we got back to camp it was time for lunch, and a nap. I awoke to find a large snapping turtle had made his way into camp. The prehistoric looking creature must have been more startled than me, he nearly flipped over when bolting down the long sloping rocky shoreline towards the lake. I didn’t know they could move so fast, once in the water he turned around and watched me for a while.

It was late afternoon before we finally got moving, the plan was to camp a couple hours paddle from Prairie Portage for the morning tow back, Burke Lake.

The problem was, I may have under estimated the time it would take to find a camp on Burke, and we fished and trolled along the way for perhaps a little too long. We made it to Burke in time for sunset but every single camp was taken, there were a couple tents but no canoes and no people at every site but one, the party site, just great.

By the time we paddled around the entire lake it was dark, we settled in to a good place not found on the map and it worked out fine but I’ll remember this one. We heard the echo of shouting and yelling across the lake till very late. I would refer to them as the drunken idiots the rest of the night.