Friday, July 17, 2009

My Dad and I get up early and head out fishing. It is not raining but the threat is still there. We catch quite a fair share of smallies and a few pike around two islands. We keep two of them to make fish bagels with to supplement our breakfast.

There is no hurry this morning because we only plan one portage onto Hanson Lake where we plan to stay three nights. Still not raining, we pack up while things are relatively dry and head towards the portage with my line in the water. About halfway to the portage, my rod doubles back and I grab it to keep it from heading into the water. The wind is blowing pretty strongly, I have no luck moving my lure, so figuring it is snagged, I hand my rod to my wife and start paddling back into the wind. I ask her to tell me when we are over top of it so I can make an attempt to retrieve the lure. She says she can't tell and then realizes the lure is not stationary. Now I realize it's a big fish because I couldn't budge it when I had the rod. She is reeling like crazy and the fish must be swimming towards the canoe not knowing it's hooked. I try to get the rod back from her but she has the monster near the surface when it realizes it and makes a beeline for the depths, snapping the line. UGH! The life of a canoe fisherman.

We end up camping on the middle site on Hanson, not a great site but out of the wind and slightly protected from the rain. The intermittent showers keep rolling in so its another afternoon of relaxing under the tarp and eating pasta with bannock bread. We all go to bed just after dark, IN THE RAIN!