We woke up bright and early this morning, ate breakfast, and discussed our plans for the day ahead. Jones and I were going to try and canoe down to Hanson Lake and then over to Link Lake, Gift Lake, and then to Fish Lake. On our way past the Island Campsite on the North side of Ester, a group of guys with a strong Canadian accent greeted us and said "happy fathers day". I had completely forgotten that it was Fathers Day and quickly wondered what my wife and 2 year old boy Wyatt were up to today. Our goal was to make it to Nawakwa Lake, but we couldn't quite make it that far due to a bunch of downed trees, so instead we spent most of the day fishing Fish Lake. We quickly found out that this lake had been named Fish Lake for good reason. We began catching Northern Pike as soon as we got on this lake. I ended up catching a really big one on a 9 inch Jointed Rapala as it was trolling behind the canoe while we paddled across the lake. Jones netted this fish for me, however my treble hooks became so entangled with the net, that we spent the next 2 hours trying to free my lure and salvage the net. We found a rock and parked the canoe here, where I eventually gave up on my struggle to free my favorite pike lure. Jones then began surgery on the net, and eventually freed my lure, Slick's net now had a 1 inch hole in it. We fished a bit longer, however since the weather was in the mid 80ºs we decided to head back to camp due to it being quite a paddle and 3 portages back. The "portage" that we used to get onto Fish Lake was nothing more than a channel that was a foot deep at its most, crossed several jagged rocks, and a beaver dam. When we got back to camp, Slick and Craig explained that they had tried their luck on Rabbit Lake which was much closer to our camp, however didn't catch anything. Craig also explained that Slick had tipped the canoe and they both went for a swim in 10 feet of water. We then built a fire and noticed a turtle had also joined us at camp and was laying eggs on the rock face near our fire grate. After eating our hotdog's for dinner, we decided that we would get up bright and early tomorrow and pack up, heading to the South Arm of Knife Lake. Slick and Craig decided they would take the 55 rod portage next to our campsite over to Ashdick Lake and try their luck for Pike. They made it back a couple hours later explaining that they really liked this lake and did really well on it. And that maybe next year we will stay on this lake.

Totals: 7 Lakes (Ester, Hanson, Link, Gift, Fish, Rabbit, Ashdick) - 180 rods