Wednesday, July 01, 2009. Woke up to 60 degrees and no wind or rain but cloudy skies. Going to Emerald today. Had breakfast by 8 and was off. Had a small beaver dam to go over before the portage. Found portage easy and I said I would carry the canoe over this one and after we used BDBs to strap poles and paddles in off I went for about 20 yards when a tree limbed jerked the canoe and I set the hook. Did I mention we left the lures on the poles and then place them right by my hands. Cut the lure off and gave the canoe to Mike to carry and when we got to Emerald had to take the hook out. Yes, it hurt. Not a lesson to be learned while in the wilderness, but a least this was minor. Did see a Moose track on the portage. Emerald is a very pretty lake but because of the clouds we did not get to enjoy the water color as much. Paddled to the far end and had lunch at a very nice site by the big cedars. Great site but someone had been very inconsiderate in the way they left it. Nice place to basecamp although it is near the exit portage. On the way back out I trolled a deep diver and caught my first ever lake trout. We fished the shores on the way back to the portage and caught about 55 fish between us. I carried the canoe back out, this time minus hooks, and we went back to fix a dinner of turkey and noodles and rice pudding. We decide to head back to Birch in the am to get near the tow ride back and we want to day trip into Polaris as the outfitter said this was a overlooked lake. No trouble sleeping tonight after our first campfire of the trip.