Thursday, June 18, 2009 This is the first morning we sleep in. I guess the long physical days of fishing and paddling have taken their toll, as well as my last two nights of stargazing in the middle of the night. It's nine o'clock when I get out of my tent, and my brother never woke me up so I guess he wasn't in any big hurry either. We had talked about going back to Agawato, but although we have camped on Shell we really haven't seen that much of it so we decide to see new territory today instead of going back to a place we've seen already. We fish a good part of the north end of Shell, and catch lots of smallmouth and walleye, but none of them are really big. The wind at times also gets a bit annoying. We walk the portage up to Heritage which exits at a shallow muddy bay not worth casting into. We walk back to Shell and canoe and fish our way back to camp. Surprisingly we have only hooked 3 northerns all week long. It was my understanding that northerns were the fish you caught by accident while trying to get bass and walleye, but they have proven themselves very scarce this week. We even targeted lots of weedy bays but no luck. Oh well, we caught lots of bass and walleye, and even though none were trophy size we caught more than enough to eat and had to throw plenty back. It's with some sadness that I realize this is the last day of our trip; tomorrow morning we break camp and head out. On most of my camping trips I have enjoyed them, but by the end I was always drooling over the thought of pizza and a cold drink, and a regular bed. But this time I easily feel like I could stay for another week; I don't miss any of the things that civilization has to offer. What a great week it has been! The weather has been spectacular all week except for a light rain one day that lasted for less than a 1/2 hour, the fishing has been great, and the bugs have been practically non-existent except for a few portages holding clouds of mosquitos. But at camp and while fishing not a one; not a mosquito, not a fly, nothing. I can hardly believe our good fortune.