I woke up around 5 am and faded in and out of sleep until I heard Pete give out a "U da Man, Steve" around 7 am. It was tough getting out of my warm sawtooth and I quickly put on multiple layers to battle the cold. I have been excited to try my new Jet Boil. I pulled it out and heated up some water for some Dunn Bro's coffee with the Jet Boil press. Not bad!

Today we headed to Lake Louisa. A quick paddle, than the first of two long portages (150+ rods), another quick paddle through Meadows Lake and the second long portage. We dropped a line into Lake Agnes and within 5 minutes I was the winner of the Green Cup for the day. Boo Yeah! We trolled the shore with some "Big Daddy Shads" and pulled out on the Louisa Falls portage. The portage is almost straight up hill and was tricky to navigate with a 3 man canoe on my head. Steve thought he would be helpful and ended up getting whacked in the head with the stern of the canoe. Did I mention the water fall is unbelievably beautiful? Wow!

We started trolling in 25 to 30 feet of water. I put on a rapala that I have carried in my tackle box for 10 years. A green back with orange and red on the belly. Within the first 10 minutes I had 2 lakers in the canoe and the third.....shit, I grabbed the line and the little bastard snapped it off and made off with my lure. I quickly reached in the water to try to grab the trout, but it was well out of reach. Bummer. Steve probably had a grin from ear to ear. He tied on a yellow walleye diver and started to rack up laker after laker while I screwed around with my riggings.

I now had a green wally diver on, but not for long as I snagged it up on the bottom and lost my second rapala of the day. Lunch time! Steve made up a second day of killer sandwiches. Today's meat was roast beef. Nice. While Steve was working the bread and mayo, Greg gathered up some quick wood and got a fire going to warm us up. It was actually colder at camp than on the lake.

Greg and Pete were killing the trout. Pete was using a purple and pink hot and tot and Greg wasn't giving out much info. After lunch we trolled between two islands and even though it slowed, we still did very well. I was low man for the day, but I did hold the green cup!

What a great trip. Beautiful area, lakes, Louisa falls and tons of lakers! I have been hanging with these guys now for almost 2 days. They are 15 years my senior and 20 years of experience on me in the canoe country. Greg is relentless. He is always doing something. I swear he is half Sherpa. It might explain his jet black hair at age 50. Dr. Wildman is a dentist back in Chicago. He carries the accent and is also a relentless worker. I tried to steel some of his wood chopping duties to not look like a total slacker. I did catch Greg sitting down enjoying a beer, but this was as rare as seeing a moose.

"U da man, Steve" as Pete would say. Fish tacos followed by warm brownies from the stove. Seriously, warm freaking brownies. Steve is da man! A few flakes kept us motivated to keep up a fire.