8-27-09 What can I say, 6 AM is our normal time to get up. Since we are not traveling today, there was no real hurry to do anything. I fished a bit from shore but got no encouragement from the fish, so just sat and watched 5 or 6 loons "fishing" as a group. At least it looked like they were working as a group, but I'm not sure if loons do that. A nice eagle was in the area too. Andy had breakfast ready by 8:15--hash browns, bacon "patties" and cheese omelets. About 9 Judy, me and Andy loaded into the triple canoe and paddled into Friday Bay for some fishing. We fished around a couple of small islands for awhile and Andy caught 2 walleye, then we landed on a larger island and fished from shore for awhile. Judy caught her first walleye and I got a nice small mouth bass. We enjoyed watching four eagles fly around the area. We fished a bit longer, catching and losing several nice fish, then got back into the canoe and slowly trolled along the shore back to camp. About half-way back I hooked the largest fish I've ever caught, a 7 to 8 pound walleye! I couldn't believe it and Andy was just as tickled at my catch as I was. We did some photos and then carefully let the big fish go back to its cool depths. Andy said the larger fish are not as tasty as the smaller ones and it was a good breeding fish. We continued on our way and Andy and I each caught a nice bass. Since we had 7 fish by this time, plenty for the 5 of us, we let my large bass go. We arrived back at camp about 2:30 and had toasted cheese sandwiches and tea for lunch. After lunch I settled down on a comfortable rock by the shore to do a little reading. Our stringer of 7 fish was in the water nearby awaiting dinner (ours) when I noticed a strange underwater rock moving toward them. The stringer was attached to the triple canoe. When the slack started to straighten out of it, I abandoned my book and grabbed the canoe end of the stringer and pulled. Surprise! A huge snapping turtle was attempting to steal our fish. The turtle let go, but proceeded to lurk in the area and made several more tries at our fish. Debra and I called Andy and he came to see what was happening. In his best guide fashion, he stepped into the water and grabbed the turtle's tail and hauled it ashore. It was even bigger out of the water! The shell was a big as a garbage can lid and it must have weighed at least 60 pounds. It kept clawing at the rock with long claws that made a lot of racket on the rock, and it opened its huge mouth and snapped at us while trying to lunge at us. We hoped that Andy had a good hold on that very unhappy snapping turtle. We took photos and then let it lumber back into the water--none of us were interested in turtle soup for dinner. Debra and I sat on the shore and kept watch over our fish for another hour. The turtle did not come close to shore again, but we did see it poke its head up out of the water and look toward us several times.

Later, Andy cleaned the fish and prepared the fillets for roasting in his special recipe over our fire. Dinner was succulent roast walleye and bass fillets with wild rice soup and blueberry scones for desert. Can this man cook, or what! It had started to rain lightly about 4 PM and continued off and on until about 7:30. The soft pitter-pat on the tarp, the campfire and the smells of our dinner cooking made for a wonderful evening in camp--and a glass of wine didn't hurt either. Judy thought she saw a mink run off with one of the fish skeletons, and we watched a river otter drag one out of the water and down the shore. We could hear him crunching the bones from 50 yards away. As usual, we slept like bears in mid-winter.