Up early, ~6AM, coffee, granola, then out in a light rain to fish Yum Yum. Calm, “smoke on the water” effect. Nice 18” smallmouth bass along the north shore, on a Heddon Zara Puppy (frog color), then lost the lure to another nice bass due to a bad knot—just learning to tie the Uni-Knot. Fishing slow, lots of small males. The Zara Puppy always beats the Heddon Baby Torpedo and the Rapala Skitter Pop as far as I am concerned although I've got some tremendous strikes and catches on the Torpedo filed away in my memory from trips gone by. SB sticks with a Rapala Tail Dancer, white with a red lip (“Bleeding Pearl”, 2-3/4”, 5/16 oz.), which seems to work on everything.

BA & JW both had good results on top water lures also. The bay where the infamous Yum Yum portage trailhead is located is very beautiful with multi-colored cliffs and large red & white pines. The colors are rich and saturated after last night's heavy rain. Venison/jalapeno/cheese salami on bagels with honey mustard for early lunch. 2 or 3 canoes passing through from the Yum Yum portage--first people we've seen since North Bay. We pick up several nice bass trolling on the way to the Shan Walshe portage.

Easy portage into Shan Walshe Lake, named for the highly-respected Quetico park naturalist who wrote The Plants of Quetico and the Canadian Shield. The northeast side showing effects of the recent forest fire. Good smallmouth fishing. Beautiful sunny, cool, breezy day for travel. A stream flows into Shan Walshe from McNiece Lake and there's a lovely old cedar grove at it's outlet which is also the beginning of the portage.

The hillsides are burned but the portage is in a small valley and the pines and cedars were partially protected and are spectacular—I managed to trip, fall and bang up my knee and shin pretty good rubbernecking at the trees. The understory of sapling birch and pine, raspberry and blueberry bushes glowing green in the afternoon sun.

Spectacular views from the McNiece campsite on the north shore up on a bluff—fire pit on the lower tier, tent pads up higher and a bog and little waterfall just to the west providing background music of falling water and an incredible chorus of frogs and toads which begin singing at dusk and continue all night. The water is very high in McNiece in contrast to the rest of the lakes we have been on and the fishing poor- - could be all the pollen in the water, the warmth of the water or runoff from the burned-over hillsides. Another swim, the water very pleasant— probably in the 60's temperature-wise.

Small grilling fire for bratwurst and then a campfire with a spectacular backdrop. A cooler night finally with temps in the mid-40's.