Day 4: Wrist Lake

I could really get used to this “two nights in each camp” thing. It was great to get up and be able to have a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and syrup. I really like eating pancakes up there, but they are definitely time-consuming. Sunny weather again was on tap, and things were calm in camp, but the east wind came up again as we headed out for fishing. We like to switch fishing partners up on non-moving days, so Steve and I headed out in search of lakers and pike. We found a real honey hole that resulted in a double hookup the first time we trolled past it, but the wind was so strong that it made landing both lakers in the canoe as we blew towards a rocky reef a harrowing experience. We marked the spot and vowed to return when the wind allowed it to be fished more safely. We let the wind blow us all the way westward into a remote bay, and found one of the better campsites on the lake tucked back inside it. That site was not marked on any maps that I have seen, but it had a nice rock chimney, an easy landing, and good tent pads.

We explored this remote bay, more to be out of the wind than anything. It looked very fishy, and a cast to an exposed rock out in the middle of the channel resulted in Steve hooking a nice 34” pike which gave him a good fight. This bay was like something out of Wild Kingdom: we saw what we assumed were moose scrapes everywhere, two Canada geese guarding a nest, numerous ducks and a pair of loons, and some more pike, but none as big as Steve’s. We headed out into the main body of the lake, and were glad to find out that the wind had laid down enough to work our spot over. Each pass resulted in a hookup for one of us at least. One laker that I caught was foul hooked with the rear treble of my lure, and when I unhooked him, he spurted blood out everywhere. It looked like something out of an episode of CSI: Ontario. The fish were hooked in depths of 30’ or so, and a number of lures that we tried were effective: Little Cleo’s, Deep Tail Dancers, and even the magnum Hellbender (thanks to Jimbo for that one!). I have never had lake trout action like that and could see doing that again. Another clear night of stars and calm winds made things feel great as we hit the hay, ready to move on in the morning. We were ready to get our walleye itch scratched again, and we would…in a big way.