~ It stayed milder overnight only dipping to the low 50s. It was sunny to start the day and then it became overcast. The wind stayed milder today in the 5-10 mph range. The temperature stayed much milder as well only getting into the upper 60s today and it was even a little chilly for part of the day as a front rolled through midday once we had gotten to our new site.

We were up fairly early and stroking on down LLC by 8 am. It was a glass calm day and was perfect for traveling on the big water. I could not resist throwing my whopper plopper some in some fishy looking areas and wished that we would have taken more time fishing our way down this trophy lake. However, we were worried about getting a site, so I limited myself to the waiting times while we waited for some of our slow poke canoes to catch up to the group. I was able to catch some decent pike and some Smallies in limited fishing. It only took us a couple of hours to move down LLC, but the weather rapidly deteriorated with the sun disappearing and the wind picking up, but it was at out backs.

We settled in to one of the best campsites I have stayed at in 20 trips. We stayed at camp 177, and it sure is a beauty. (Supposedly, the island across the way is even nicer (camp 173) but my brother said he stopped there the day we left as it was empty then and he liked the one we stayed at more.)

I think it was around 11 am or a little before as we pulled into this gorgeous campsite. This site has it all, great canoe landings (multiple options), mature trees, tons of space, rocky points to fish from, sand beach on one side to swim from, great tend pads, lots of shade, breezy but protected areas if needed. Like I said amazing site. If I had to nit pick my only qualms would be you don’t have much of a view of the lake from the fire pit and the brown throne is very close to camp. We even caught some nice walleye and bass from camp during our stay.

After arriving at camp, we got out tents set up and camp organized some and the front rolled through. It was quite cool during the middle of the day and most of us donned our warmer layers. We explored our island some and most of us relaxed. We all set up hammocks and put our camp chairs out on the point to the North or on the West side of the site. Lots of great options. We cooked up a hearty soup for lunch and had some Bannock to go with it which was a great addition to our food arsenal that was new this year and will be returning. Most of us napped in our tents or hammocks during the midday wind and cool temperatures. We headed out mid-afternoon to explore the area with our fishing poles. Everyone fanned out in various directions with mixed results. Most people found bass and pike and a few of our crew were able to catch some walleye as well but it was rather slow going with the wind. We did find good-looking structure and locations to fish that we wanted to try once the weather was calmer in the evening. Zack landed a mid-30s pike without hooking it with his bare hands. The Northern Pike had t-boned a walleye he caught, and it would not let go. They got a cool video of it that I will try to link into the trip report if possible.

We all congregated back at camp in the late afternoon and had an early supper of teriyaki chicken stir fry. I dehydrated all the vegetables, and I thought it turned out really well. I think it will be returning on future trips. It is always nice to get quality veggies into your diet out in the bush.

Everyone but Jud headed out for the evening fishing exploits so that meant I headed out solo. The wind was a little bit of a pain to get out to my spot but not too bad. I anchored up on some good structure and had a quality slip bobber fishing evening catching 15 walleye, 13 Smallmouth, and a couple pike. I did cast a swim bait as well. The wind slacked off and it was a nice calm evening to fish and paddle pack to camp. The other canoes had done okay all catching bass and walleye, but I had done the best out of us for this evening. We had hot drink around the fire and told some hunting and fishing stories by firelight.