Wednesday was our day to explore Red Rock, so we hit the water early and spent some time casting around the weed beds near the islands in the skinny part of the lake. We caught a few pike and bass, but nothing of size. It looked like it would be an amazing place to fish in June. We continued south and swung around the point, following the lake to the northeast into a very shallow, muddy bay with sparse weed cover. It was amazing how different the water clarity was in this part of the lake, but the small river like area that connects it to the main lake almost disconnects this area from the rest of Red Rock. The bay seemed to be full of 10-12 inch smallmouth bass as well, which was a fun little bonus to our exploration efforts. The campsite there looked like it would be ok in a pinch, but was otherwise not noteworthy. We eventually returned to the island area, ate lunch, and fished until mid afternoon without much trouble from the wind, catching a few more small bass and pike.

After a short break back at camp, we did some swimming from our site, got some firewood ready, and headed back out to the bay south of our camp to fish. We didn’t catch much, but we did get to watch as a huge beaver worked it’s way along shore chewing on small branches and pulling them into the water. We were close enough to hear its teeth working while it chewed. Eventually the beaver swam away from shore and went right underneath our canoe, giving both Jaden and I an excellent glimpse of just how big it actually was.

After fishing, we went back to camp and ate dinner, followed by a short campfire. Two notable things happened at that campfire which will definitely be talked about in future trips, those "remember the time..." kind of moments. First, Jaden was quietly singing a song and I could just make out the words. I recognized the tune right away as hey sang the words a few more times- “Jimmy Dean, is not my lover”. I tried not to laugh too much when I told him the song was called Billie Jean and that Jimmy Dean made breakfast sausages, but at least he knew it was a Michael Jackson song. We also distinctly heard a bear across the bay from us on two different occasions where it made a sort of grunting or roaring noise. I knew what it was right away and Jaden definitely heard it, but I didn’t tell him what had made the sounds until the next day. I figured if he knew that he might not sleep well that night. He told me the next day that I had made a good decision. Another victory for Dad!