Wednesday, June 27, 2007

We woke up early with a faint hint of light to the east and dead calm on the lake. I made some coffee and watched the sunrise. After a couple of hours the wind picked up. The wind started to gust out of the west and the low cumulus clouds started to roll in. We were planning on staying two nights but we were hoping to do some exploring of Knife Lake. With the wind gusting out of the west we decided to stay close to camp. I gathered and cut some wood. We had a nice bay to our south to paddle and fish in out of the wind. We worked the bay casting different lures but catching no fish. I tied on a Mimic Minnow as a shot in the dark. As we hit the edge of the wind and waves I had a nice fish on. As we were trying to catch a glimpse of the fish we saw a loon swimming under the boat. My heart sank thinking I had caught a loon. The loon popped up next to the boat and my line was still shaking at the bottom. Another loon swims from out under the boat and popped up next to the first loon then a very nice 19-20” Smallie came up with the Mimic in its lip. The two loons dove back down and swam by the Smallie. I caught and released the Smallie and we continue. I tied a twin tailed chartreuse twister to the Warden’s line and tipped it with a black Gulp worm. We continued to drift the windy shore and the Warden caught a 16” and 19” walleye for supper. I also caught a couple of walleyes and a couple more Smallies. We went back to camp about 3:30 PM to start an early supper of fried potatoes and fried walleye.

We kept the fire burning enjoying the peace, and the bugs were actually taking a day off until about 8:00 PM. We decided to paddle since the wind died down and I dragged a Purple Tail-Dancer around. I caught one Northern on the Dancer and a nice Smallie on a Shad Rap. We made it back to camp just in time, as it was getting dark and starting to rain. The wind switched out of the north and it cooled off a bit.

We shared our campsite with a Snowshoe Hare, a Woodchuck and many birds. There were a lot of different berries around camp including strawberries, and raspberries.