Sunday, July 25, 2010

Morning number five dawns clear and calm. Zach, who apparently loves to sleep in, does not stir as the rest of us crawl out of our tents. Fishing this morning was more of the same, lots of smallies but at least this morning we did end up catching a few decent ones while working a reef in the middle of the lake.

The fishermen of the trip are ready to find some bigger fish so we decide to move on with the intention of out next campsite being on Ester Lake. The first portage of the day is 20 easy rods to Topaz Lake where we just cruise, fishing along the way, and catching the occasional pike or smallie. The 5 rod portage to beautiful Cherry Lake is a breeze as well and with no wind to speak of, the day is easy paddling.

Near the far eastern end of Cherry, the water rushing from Lunar Lake to Cherry Lake sounded like a waterfall. We did not hear that the year before but probably because this year was a wet spring and summer. The 110 rod portage from Cherry to Hanson is not for the weak. It is definitely an up-and-down portage that probably keeps those travelers with heavy loads from attempting it. However, I am proud to say that my wife and I blow through it and leave the two "man" canoe in our dust on the trail.

Hanson Lake to Ester is a nice, easy paddle although we are a bit tired from the last portage. Jes and I press on ahead to see if we can secure the campsite that we had scouted the year before on Ester. As we rounded the bend we could see that is was available and we were there waiting for Scott and Zach when they arrived.

It is truly a "gem" of a site in our eyes. Beautiful view, wide open with plenty of tall pines, a good landing area, and flat tent pads. It will be home for a few evenings.

Swimming and snorkeling are on the to-do list this afternoon. It is hot and we all worked up quite a sweat on the last portage. This is the spot where the "redneck fishfinder" made it's appearance. I had noticed on Knife Lake that the bass really could not care less if they had a human floating above them so we decided to attempt to catch them with one person fishing from shore and the other person snorkeling and pointing down to where the big fish were. It was amazing to watch the reaction of the fish as we used different jigs/lures in an attempt to catch them. Quite an eye opener for any fisherman. Some things they were highly attracted to and others they were indifferent to. Anyway, to make a long story short, we did this for a few hours and actually caught a few fish.

When we bored of this technique my brother decided to tie a string around his wrist, put on a drop shot weight and use a artificial leach and attempt to catch them with this method. It was highly effective and we all laughed hysterically every time he emerged from the water with another catch. Unreal! I highly recommend this experiment if others are so inclined to try it. We caught some of the action on video but I cannot load videos here. Maybe I'll post a link to youtube later.

We fished (from the canoe) after dinner and caught some nice fish not far from camp, and then came in to enjoy conversation and hang out by the fire. What a great day we had.