We decided to revisit our most productive water this morning, which would be our last dedicated fishing day. Within minutes we were on fish and we quickly had three walleyes on the stringer. Our friendly eagle was again intently waiting and watching for an easy meal.

Here comes the obligatory “one that got away story.” Shady was soaking a leech and having far more success than I on this day. But the fishing slowed down after our early success and we were getting ready to pull up the anchor and move a bit. Don’t let him tell you otherwise, Shady didn’t even realize his bobber was down. When he FINALLY did, he picked up the slack and set the hook on what appeared to be a decent fish. But when the aerials started we quickly realized this was a trophy 20+” smallmouth. He battled the fish for a couple minutes, getting it nearly to the boat. But the hook eventually yielded and his monster smallmouth got away. Based on what I saw, I have no doubt this was a 20+” fish.

Although the fishing was a little slower, we were treated to another close encounter with the eagle. This time s/he launched into flight after a 6 or 7” smallmouth struggling at the surface. I was able to catch some of it with my digital camera’s movie feature. While the resolution could be better there are a few pretty cool frames.

After dinner we were cleaning up around camp when Shady commented on a splashing sound from across the river. Sure enough, there was a big cow moose eating, drinking and wading in the small bay directly across from our campsite. We sat and watched her for a good while, but eventually we launched our canoe for one last evening of topwater fishing. She seemed wholly unconcerned with our presence and spent probably an hour and a half dining before returning to the woods. I think we landed a couple small bass but it was just a beautiful night to be out, with a clearing sky and our friend the moose nearby.

We settled down by a fire to take in the peace and quiet. We had seen only 3 or 4 groups in our time camped on the river until…must have been 10 pm when we heard THEM round the bend. With all of the headlamp and flashlight activity you would have thought aliens landed. They proceeded to setup camp right across the bay from us. We could still hear pots and pans loudly clanging after 11 pm, and a pathetic wolf howl imitation rang out from their direction sometime after midnight. Tacky…at best.