Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Woke up to clear skies and a nice misty morning.

We crossed the Kennebas Falls portage, rigged up our trolling rods and head up Kawnipi.

It wasn't long before Angie caught her first Northern.

She thought it was HUGE, as it was her biggest fish ever.

We caught numerous walleye, smallish northerns, and smallies as we worked our way up Kawnipi. We enjoyed seeing multiple bald eagles along the way.

As we neared the mouth of Kawa Bay we ran into a group of young women all clad in Bikinis. We talked to them for a a while and learned they were on day 26 of 36. It looked like they barely had any gear so I was surprised they were out here that long. After the previous days bad weather and the portages being rougher than she thought Angie was in low spirits, but meeting this group gave her some new energy.

As Angie and John were talking to the girls we paddled up behind them and I grabbed John's fishing line and gave it a tug, he got so excited that he might have a big fish, he threw his paddle in the water as he reached for his fishing pole.

Angie and Sara didn't see me grab the line and immediately start making fun of John. Angie said, "Whoa honey, do I need to put a Bikini on too, you got so excited you just threw your paddle into the water." Later in the day I'd admit my fun, but for now I just sat back and listened to my brother get harassed by the girls as they went back for John's paddle.

Later as we approached the mouth of McKenzie Bay we passed a group of young men with their shirts off. Just as I thought John's ribbing was dying down the 2 girls drop their paddles briefly into the water and say, "Sorry I just got so excited I couldn't hang onto my paddle."

The trolling through Kawnipi was great. We caught fish almost everywhere. At one point as I trolled over 80-90 feet deep of water my pole bent heavily over and I thought I might have one of those mythical Kawnipi Lakers I have heard about, but instead I hauled in a nice 24 inch walleye almost black in color. Probably one of the most beautifull walleyes I have ever seen. I released it quickly as it was a warm sunny day.

We briefly looked for the pictos in the area, but did not see them. Will have to look harder the next time we come through. We were really in get to camp mode by now. We were shooting for a nice island camp in McKenzie--it looked open but as we got closer we could see the movement of people. We settled for a nice point campsite across.

We set up camp.

After dinner of fresh walleye and wild rice. John and I went out and trolled some more catching and releasing another dozen walleyes. I tried to teach JOhn how to steer and J-Stroke, but he just said Uh-huh a lot and said he had it down.

Then we enjoyed some smores and a campfire.