Saturday woke up to a still frozen over Oyster. The ice was still 2-3 inches thick but “honeycombed” and fragile. Followed the shoreline north from our campsite and broke our way to the north end of the lake which was more open (probably owing to more sun exposure and wind direction). It sounded like shattering glass as we worked our way along whether the ice was breaking up directly at the hands of our paddles or crumbling in our wake. We portaged via the northwestern peninsula spanning campsite to the narrow shallow western bay of Oyster which was wide open. The western side of Oyster in general was open except just south of that 5 star site in the NW corner. It rained all day on Saturday, sometimes light, sometimes less lightly. Amazingly over the course of the day all the ice disappeared (thanks to the rain and wind-certainly not the sun or warmth!). We could hear the ice shifting and crashing into shore at times. 

We fished all day and (I) caught three decent lakers trolling crankbaits (20 to 25")-okay I actually lost one of them right next to the boat. My greatest regret is that my buddy never hooked up. We were doing the same things-alternately fishing the same lures-trolling from the same boat in the same water. Total luck on my part. I was surprised that we didn’t pick up a pike or smallie all day. I did snag up and land an eight-way bottom-bouncing menagerie which was humorous and at the same time proved that some people have; a) no brain, or b) no scruples. 

Grilled lemon-peppered laker for dinner. Note to self 25” is too big for 2 people to comfortably eat (and Clayton and I aren’t little princesses around the dinner table)…especially when I insisted on a side of 2 packages of Pasta Roni Garlic and Olive Oil Vermicelli. Again no room for dessert. Good thing because the cold zapped my dexterity to operate the stove or open the food barrel. About 7 maybe 8 pm the cold rain changed to snow. Hot Chai Latte and Jim Beam never tasted so good! Got about an inch that night. We still had the lake to ourselves.