Thursday, August 24, 2017 Thursday, August 24th: Foggy morning, but the sun came out right away. It was a calm beautiful day. We ate oatmeal & trail mix this am. So far, the neighbor guy had a least a shirt on. We contemplated our day, should we move or what? Dan really wanted to get over to Gordon and we both wanted to at least take the portage to Cherokee. We decided to make a day of it and head to Gordon. We packed a lunch and headed out by 10:00 a.m. We fished Long Island Creek again. Wow it was grand central station. There were 3 canoes day tripping headed to the Gordon portage. There is a cool water fall by the Gordon Portage. Also, there are 3 places you must get out of your canoe on between Long Island Lake and Long Island Creek due to the Beaver’s busy work. We know now but didn’t know at the time, when we were fishing on Long Island creek, there was a canoe that sat for a while at the Gordon portage, waiting for another group of canoers, every now and then they would yell to the group we couldn’t see is everything okay are you coming? We just kept fishing and waiting for them to all get off the portage but had no idea what was going on. When all 3 canoes finally got on Long Island creek headed to Long Island Lake there was one canoe pulling another canoe and the guy in the front of the last canoe had dark glasses on and wasn’t paddling. No one in the group said anything but hello to us. When we got home I read the story of a Medical emergency on Ham Lake and learned they were getting there friend out of the BWCA due to medical emergency and trying to get him to Ham for help. I did read that the guy is okay and his friends did a great job getting him help. We finally made it to Gordon Lake. It was so beautiful. We fished and fished. I did catch one northern on L I creek but let it go. We had lunch on the campsite closets to Cherokee portage. It was all uphill campsite but had a nice face with the water’s edge. We then went on the portage to Cherokee. We were there in 2013 so we just had to go back and visit. In 2013 we took shelter from a storm on the portage between Gordon and Cherokee. It was just like we remembered now it was time to get back to fishing. We saw several Beaver lodges on Gordon that we wanted to crappie fish on the way back out. We first had to go back to the area we fished on Gordon in 2013. We weren’t there long and at first I thought I was snagged and then I realized I had a fish. Dan saw the fish first and guided me thru getting it reeled in. It was a huge Northern. I got it close to the canoe and was about to swing it back toward Dan at the back of the canoe, Dan said don’t give it to me yet, it is going to realize he is hooked and take off. Our dog Lil was watching all of this in the section in front of Dan in the canoe, about that time the fish jumped up in the air and landed in the canoe in the section where Lil was sitting, she without even touching the sides of the canoe jumped out on the opposite side of the canoe that the fish jumped in. She was in the water so quick, I saw all this out of the corner of my eye, but Dan had a great view. Dan had all his fishing gear laying on the floor of the canoe. Dan is trying to get the dog back in the canoe and the fish is flopping all over the canoe in the section in front of him. Dan got her in the canoe and she was so afraid of the fish she was climbing on Dan’s lap. So now the dog is soaking wet, Dan is soaking wet and the fish is flopping everywhere. I want to bust out laughing but I wasn’t sure Dan would think it was very funny, but all at once he started laughing. We sat there and laughed and he got the fish under control and got his tackle all picked up. Lil wants to see the fish on the string but not anywhere close to her. We should have had a video of that whole thing. It was already 4:30 and Dan said we got supper we better get back to camp. It was 6:00 p.m. when we got back to camp. We would both just burst out laughing on the way back thinking about the flying fish and dog. Dan cleaned the 30.5 inch Northern and we had it for supper with mashed potatoes. YUMMY! It wasn’t windy and it had been 48 hours without rain! YES! We cleaned up camp tied up the canoe for the night upside down up at camp, and headed to bed it was 9:00 p.m. What a DAY! WE LOVED IT!