We were up and going pretty early. Everyone had a quick breakfast, and then we broke down camp. Dave_B had oatmeal and pop tarts. I had mountain house granola and blueberries. I’m not too sure what everyone else had.

By 9:00am, we were back on the water, and headed to what I considered to be the two worse portages on this trip.

For some reason, the portages from Wet to Kawnipi were not as bad as I remembered. Maybe that is because we had to do the high water portages the last time and this time we could do the low water portages. I’m not too sure. I definitely remember a sheer granite 45 degree wall we had to navigate, and this time it was not there. Maybe, that was the McEwen to Kenny portage. Oh well, it was definitely easier than in years past.

Maybe, it was the 80 flights of stairs I did every day for 80 weeks before the trip. I will tell you this…the working out thing before you have a serious trip is a very good idea. I felt better on this trip than any trip in the past. Some of it was because I had lost 30lbs before the trip, but most of it was because I had been working my butt off to get into some better shape. It also helps to be in the company of some of my very best friends.

After tackling the Koko Falls and Canyon Falls portages, and then the Kenny Lake portage, we were finally at our destination lake……Kawnipi.

On the Koko Falls portage GadgetMan and Kristen_E found a full gallon of vodka that had either been lost or left on the portage. We don’t know what or why, but it now belonged to US. Some of the vodka was drunk, but for the most part, it was used to sanitize stuff and to clean the table. It was especially good for removing pine tar, which would end up on everything at our Kawnipi campsite.

On the portage from Kenny to Kawnipi, we pulled out our maps and started making some decisions on where we wanted to camp, and how/if we were fishing up the lake.

We all decided on a cluster of 3-4 campsites due East of Rose Island. This would be our initial game plan for a campsite. With that in mind, each canoe set out in different directions, fishing our way up to the Rose Island area.

GadgetMan and Kristen_E headed to “gorilla bay”; a magic, ultra secret area where the smallies knife fight the northerns for territory………AND WIN……

Chms and SmallieSaver headed to Atkins Bay, where they had heard good things about monster northern pike…..

Dave_B and I started fishing humps and channel breaks on Kawnipi headed in a general direction towards Rose Island.

Dave_B and I had planned on targeting and fishing for deeper, summer staging smallies. He started using his go to bait…..white grub with a ¼ oz jig head. This worked well, and we managed to catch 10 or 15 or so smallies. We didn’t catch any real big smallies, but we did manage some decent 2 or 3lb fish. I had 3 poles rigged up. One pole was rigged with a tube jig, another with a swim bait, and the final pole with a 5/16 oz shakey head. I managed to catch fish on all three baits, but the largest of the fish was caught on 4 inch long big hammer swim baits on a 3/8 oz jig head.

The swim bait would be the bait that Dave_B and I used most of the trip. In fact, I probably could have left 90% of my fishing gear at home and took 30 jig heads and 60 swim bait bodies, and caught more than enough fish.

Dave_B and I fished for a couple hours, and then found an area that looked like a perfect walleye spot. We setup for a perfect drift, put out my drift sock and started fishing.

This was the first year that I have ever used a drift sock. I’ve been told for years that a drift sock will definitely enhance your ability to fish a windswept bank but I really didn’t put any faith in the discussions. Boy, I was wrong. By using a drift sock, Dave_B and I were able to slow our drift to about 1 mph. This was in a good 15mph wind. Talk about boat control. This made targeting this specific walleye reef a breeze. Dave_B quickly caught a nice eater sized walleye off the front of the reef…….He threw the fish in the bottom of the canoe and continued fishing. There was no time to break out the stringer, and we really didn’t’ know if we’d catch more or not. As we drifted closer to the reef, I made a long cast to the back side of the reef. Immediately, I hooked up with a decent sized fish and I knew by the swagger that it was a walleye.

Since I was using a longer fishing rod…a 7ft 4 g.Loomis Bronzeback, I pulled the fish up to Dave_B to have him unhook it. At this time Dave_B figured we should get out a stringer. While he got out the stringer, and while we were still drifting at a GREAT slow drift, I made another cast, and immediately hooked up again. This was yet another better than average sized walleye. Again, Dave_B took it off the hook and put it on the stringer. While stringing it, I again made another long cast. This time I casted to the front of the reef, and worked the bait back a little faster, and up the reef. BOOM……Another fish. Again, I caught another better than average sized walleye. We were definitely going to have walleye for dinner.

By this time, I was feeling a little bad, and waited for Dave_B to at least get a couple more casts. We had finally drifted past the reef far enough that I pulled in the drift sock and we made a couple more passes. Dave_B hooked up a couple more times, but we didn’t manage to put any more walleye in the boat.

After a quick glance at the time, we both realized it was time to start heading towards where we wanted to camp. It was already 4:00pm and we had at least a 1 or 2 hr paddle into the wind to where we wanted to camp.

In the distance, I could see SmallieSaver and Chms, and I could also see what looked like Kristen_E and GadgetMan. We all met up at our reef and talked about our plans. SmallieSaver and Chms had caught a couple decent smallies and had kept them so we had more than enough fish for dinner.

Plans were made, and we started heading to our base camp destination campsite.

I knew of a few fantastic sites, and had heard of some others that were not so fantastic. We paddled past a couple 5 stars that were unoccupied, but the guys wanted to be higher up the lake. I grumbled a little and discussed with Dave_B the fact that we passed up some great sites……NO matter. The sites directly across from Rose Island were supposed to be pretty good, so we continued paddling, and paddling………and paddling.

By the time we reached our destination campsite we were beat. Well our destination site was far short of a respectable campsite. There were only 2 good tent pads and 1 that we’d have to make due. I made it clear to the rest of the group that I didn’t paddle and portage 28 miles to camp at a craphole campsite, especially when we passed up some of the best campsites I have ever seen in the park. I’ve been to this area on multiple occasions, but some in this group had never been here. They had heard me talk about the fantastic 5 star campsites. This was not one of them.

My disgust with the campsite was obviously clear to Chms and GadgetMan. Fortunately for us, there where multiple campsites in this particular area. Chms and GadgetMan took off searching for another campsite. In a few minutes, they signaled that they found something that was marginally better.

They really played it up……..they said the site was barely better than what we had left but it at least had 3 tent pads, if you cut down a couple trees. Of course, they were kidding. The campsite they found was indeed a 5 star campsite. The landing was not as good as I would have liked but there were easily 3 or 4 really nice and level tent pads. Not only that, but the site was setup perfectly to allow for a tarp. On top of this, someone had cut up and split at least 10-15 logs. Finally, if everything else was not enough, someone had taken the time and effort to create a really nice table out of logs and granite. This table was setup in the middle of the fire sitting logs. It was like having a coffee table in the middle of your living room with a couple sofas sitting around it.

Yes, this was indeed a fantastic site, and would be our home for the next 4 nights.

We started setting up camp. First the tents, then Dave_B and Chms headed down to filet and prepare the walleye and smallies that were caught for dinner. While this was going on, I got out the platypus gravity filters and started the first 8 liters of water. SmallieSaver worked on the fire, since we needed fire to grill the fish tonight.

Kristen_E was on dinner duty. Her plans called for fish tacos and chicken flavored couscous.

This is where the real food for the trip began. Kristen_E really worked on her meals and the things she created and planned for were obvious. The fish tacos included a special marinade that she had prepared at home, outside of the wet ingredients. She had also packed and vacuum sealed some onions that were done in a red wine vinaigrette. To wrap up all the goodies in a taco, she brought along corn tortillas that we warmed up in aluminum foil on the sides of the fire.

We ate like kings and it was good.

After dinner, and before it got too late, GadgetMan, Dave_B, Chms, and I setup and strung the tarp. While it was not completely over the sitting area, it worked perfectly. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at the situation, we did not need the tarp once on this trip. We only had sprinkles one day and that only lasted for 30 minutes or so.

As the sun set, we sat around the fire. It was starting to get a little cool, so polar fleece was brought out. Lots of bull was slung, and a few platys were skinned.

Yes my friends, it was great to be back on Kawnipi. I felt good, and was sure this would turn out to be another memorable trip. I was not mistaken.

The best part about these fall trips is the fact that there are very few bugs this time of year. This trip would be no different.

As things wound down, plans were made for the next day. GadgetMan and Kristen_E were headed to the north end of the lake. They were going to try to get to the Cache River area. Chms and SmallieSaver were headed to the bay behind our island campsite in search of smallies. Dave_B and I were going to hit some deep reef areas I knew in and around the main lake and Rose Island areas. I finally broke out my fish finder, and check the batteries and connections in anticipation of using it in the morning.