Monday, May 25, 2009

My watch alarm had failed to wake me or Sammie up. I opened my eyes to find the daylight pouring out of the sky. I was wanting to get a good and early start to beat the wind on Gabbro. I was to late. I could hear the wind blowing the trees just above us. I rolled out of bed and started the process of waking up my Sammie. She managed to get one eye open and a light growl before i could tell her that it was past time to get up and gone.

We got packed up and on the water later that I wanted. It was a little past 9 AM and I was starting to wonder what Gabbro would be like. The last time i crossed this lake i was solo, the wind was in my face, and the white caps were making for a difficult paddle. We had a very big bald eagle fly over us a few times. Sammie was trying to get a good picture of it, but it seemed to always catch her off guard. She was watching the skies hoping to get a flyby when I softly called to her. "Sam". She thought I had seen the eagle and was trying to get her attention drawn to it. "Moose". There was a cow with twin calves wading in the water just 75 yards in front of us. We had focused so much of our attention to the eagle we had not noticed them crossing the lake right in front of us. Keeping our distance we watched them round the bay and clumsily head into the woods after about 5 min. Sam was excited to get to see her first moose. So excited half of the pictures she took were out of focus or did not have any moose in them! She did manage to get a few shots.
We managed our way into Gabbro to find the wind was at our backs and pushing us across. This time I was to find the wind on our side.There were a lot of canoes on the water and nearly all the campsites where filled in Gabbro. I started to wonder if we would find open campsites on the South Kawishiwii. We made quick work of Gabbro and Little Gabbro. I took us to the portage to the S. Kawishiwii from Little Gabbro. We crossed the portage and made it to our campsite to find it was empty and awaiting us. I had chose to skip breakfast and have a brunch to make up for waking up late. With the oatmeal we ate earlier as a snack leaving our stomachs empty after a short period I made camp and got breakfast in us quick.
We enjoyed the wind break we got from the trees that surrounded the area. Food pack hung high, full stomach, tent up...time to fish. We took off to a spot I had caught lots at in previous years and had planned on that continuing. I set up the fish finder to get a depth reading and water temp. It beeped a few times as the depth dropped and a few fish had hunkered down on a ledge. I made note of their depth and location as we paddled onward to anchor. I set up our rigs and with in no time had dinner caught the rest was for fun. We moved to a spot I wanted to try out when i remember the ones we had crossed earlier. I cant forget those, the fish finder said they had size to them. I tossed out and counted as my lure dropped to a depth and reeled in a few times with no fish. The wind was blowing good and the temp was dropping fast. Sammie was getting chilled and hungry again. I tossed out my rig and reeled in one more time before pulling up the anchor. As we drifted out I could not resist another one last cast before i called it quits. FISH ON! It fought good, felt like it had nice size, this might be a decent fish to end the day with. As i got it closer it seemed to fight more. It ran twice and i had not even seen what it was yet. I called it out to be a 30 inch northern or a very nice walleye. I would never get a chance to see it. My line went slack and the fish was gone. I reeled it the rest of the way in swapped out a a pole for a paddle and headed back. OOPs one last stop! It was on the way so Sam did not mind to much but i could tell she would rather head back to camp. I quickly turned on the fish finder to locate the ledge. I dropped a line down while asking Sammie what time it was. I would not forget the promise i made on the first night of no late dinners even if i was wanting to get in some more fishing. I took an extra 15 min only catching one small fish. We headed to camp to enjoy what was left of our trip. I would make use of the stove one last time to make up for the extra time i spent fishing and to ensure i kept my promise. We noticed the arrival of a few dark clouds and sprinkles on the water.
With camp cleaned for the night we moved into the tent. We talked about our trip and things we would change if there would be a next time for us. She said next time we are going somewhere i have not been so it will be an adventure for both of us. She wants a new fishing pole, lighter gear pack (tent, bags,cook kit,stove), different yoke pads, longer net, and better shoes. Knowing i just got the go ahead to refit everything Losing the fish earlier did not bother me nearly as much as it had been.