Rose late on Thursday. Slept terrible, could have got up at 5, but stayed in my bag and didn’t get out till 8:30. Hate that. Missed an incredible sunrise, but thankfully my brother couldn’t sleep and was up to catch it. Morning was just stunning—perfect. Probably the best morning we have all had weather wise in the last 3 or 4 trips. About time!

After a later breakfast of Kodiak cakes, blueberry granola and milk, and coffee we head down to the lake to clean our dishes and notice a huge, 16-18” diameter snapper hanging out for scraps. Guy was large and prehistoric. So much for a morning swim.

The remainder of the day would be spent paddling around Horsehoe relaxing from the long haul the day before. Hoping to catch some fish we started working shoreline with slip bobbers set between 5 and 8’ along with casting the shoreline with shad raps and spinner baits. Also tried jigging in 10-15 feet of water with leaches. Almost no luck. One keeper Walleye and a catch and release Smallmouth after 2 or so hours of fishing.

We fry up the single ‘eye and have an appetizer for lunch. Damn good, but a few more would’ve been just what the doctor ordered.

With plans to check out the Vista portage we head that way and fish along the way. No luck, but we see a couple Bald Eagles flying formation and doing their best impersonation of the Thunderbirds. Hit the Vista portage and check out the nearby stream, pretty neat. We determine that the portage into Vista has to be one of the hardest sub-75 rod portages in all of BWCA. In rain/mud that thing would be treacherous. Vista greets us with a nice headwind and we decide it’s not worth paddling into.

Fish all the way back and catch nothing—becoming a trend. Around half way back to camp we see the sky is doing it’s thing and we can hear gradually increasing thunder in the distance. We pick up our pace and decide it’s probably time to head back. Our pace quickens abruptly as the sky quickly gets worse and a light rain starts around 4PM. More thunder, paddle harder. We get into camp, don rain gear, and surrender to our tarp. In no time the sky opens up and Mother Nature dumps. Hard hard rain, hail, and lighting that is borderline too close for comfort for the next 20 minutes. With nothing else to do, we pass around a bag of pistachios, a bottle of Beam, and we ride her out. Everything is soaked, but our tarp holds fast and we’re dry enough.

The evening is gorgeous and we decide to paddle Horsehoe and try some post-thunderstorm fishing. Just a stunner of an evening, I honestly couldn’t care that we didn’t even get a bite. Easily the best evening I’ve experienced in the BWCA. Calm, with just enough cloud cover to make for a perfect hazy sunset. The night is clear and we stargaze, see a few satellites and shooting stars, and b.s. around the campfire till 12-12:30. Something we have perfected. All in all, a classic BWCA day. Fishing could have been a little better though.