Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The day dawns gray and gloomy but at least it's not raining.

Scott and I head to a fishing spot that had been productive the year before on Hanson Lake and succeed in catching a fair amount of smallmouths, a few that we keep for breakfast bagels. My first disappointment of the trip came when I was jigging for walleye and thought that I had hooked into something nice. As it came out of the depths at first glance it looked like a medium sized pike, so not wanting to mess with it I gave it slack to see if it could unhook itself. To my shock, it began rolling over and over until I realized it was a lake trout. Just at that moment, it broke off and it was gone. It would have been my first ever laker. I was really bummed but that's what I get for being lazy and not wanting to unhook a pike. Lesson learned! But at least we had a nice, fresh breakfast to look forward to. Over the years my father has taught me to cut some nice filets and my mother has taught Jes how to prepare them. Thanks for always teaching!

Our original plan for the day was the daytrip to Lake of the Clouds but the weather didn't look too promising so we decided to be lazy. And we were! We all slept, read and slept some more until the afternoon when Zach and I went out fishing for a bit.

My second disappointment of the trip happened to occur on the same day as the first one when I must not have tied a very good knot to my drift sock and it came undone. Much to my dismay, the wind was blowing too hard and we could not get the canoe turned around in time as I watched it slowly sink to the depths of Ester Lake. If you are ever trolling the area near the small island just to the west of northern island campsite, maybe you'll snag it. It's lightly used!

The wind is now too tough to fish in, so we head to camp for a dinner of Santa Fe chicken wraps with blueberry cheesecake for dessert. We settle in around the blazing fire to relax for the evening before calling it a night. I think it's the first time in 5 trips that Jes has not even hit the water for a short paddle, now that's a relaxing day.