Dave_B really wanted to hit Kawa Bay and some of the magical areas of that part of the lake, but it simply would not be. Instead, Chms, SmallieSaver, Dave_B and I would head to McVicar Bay for some smallie action and GadgetMan and Kristen_E would head north in an attempt to visit the Cache River area. We would not make it to Kawa Bay because we decided to leave Kawnipi on Wednesday and try to make a long push out to at least silver falls. That way we would only need to break camp one more time. The thought was this would allow for more fishing Thursday and Friday, and in fact it did.

Dave_B and I had a not so quick breakfast of pancakes again. Did I mention pancakes in the Boundary Waters are better than pancakes anywhere else in the world? Dave_B and I figured that we had enough pancake mix for one more breakfast, and we’d do that the last morning we were on Kawnipi.

Once we reached McVicar Bay, Dave_B and I started fishing for smallies as we had all week. The bay turned out to be a great spring spawning bay, but not such a great fall feeding bay. We caught some smallies, but not nearly as many as expected, and Dave_ B and I decided to once again target some walleye. We used the standby white/black back Big Hammer 4 inch swim bait with a 3/8 oz jig head. 

If you’ve ever fished for walleye, you know the specific areas where walleye should hang out. Dave and I found these spots. Choke points and slack areas behind windswept points were the best, as well as deep main lake points. We didn’t catch a ton of walleye, but we did catch enough to make it fun. One thing to remember when fishing a swim bait is the fact that they hit the bait, and then eat it. If you fish like you normally would and set the hook on the hit, you’d almost always miss the fish. If you waited for the fish to eat the bait, and for the rod to start loading up the walleyes were literally swallowing the swim bait. Most of the good hooked walleye were really good and hooked. In many cases, the bait was 3 or 4 inches deep. These fish definitely were putting on the feedbag and loved the swim baits.

If I ever fish Kawnipi in the fall again, I will know certain spots that I will not even attempt to smallie fish. McVicar Bay is one of those spots. We ended up catching 5 or 6 smallies in McVicar Bay, but not many more. On a good point though, I did manage to stick the largest smallie for me of the trip. This fish was a good 3.8lb smallie. It was caught on a swim bait on a 35 ft drop-off. This particular drop-off was on the deep side of a submerged reef outside of McVicar Bay. Using the fish finder, I was able to locate baitfish stacked up along the point. These baitfish were being hammered by what I suspect were some big smallies. Catching the 3.8 kind of confirmed this, but it was the only fish we caught there.

After catching a few walleye and smallies off of reefs near the mouth of McVicar Bay, Dave_B and I decided to head across the lake to the mouth of McKenzie Bay. We found some great areas there that looked to be good for walleye fishing. We caught a few more smallies and a few more under sized walleye there. We finally ended up catching our limit and decided to head back to camp. While at the mouth of McKenzie bay, we met back up with Chms and SmallieSaver, and talked to them about what we had found and put them also on some fish. Chms and SmallieSaver ended up catching a couple walleye, which would definitely add to the catch. The walleye Dave_B and I caught were certainly not enough for 6 folks.

It didn’t matter that we didn’t catch a lot of walleye. This was supposed to be only a red beans and rice dinner, but we ended up adding baked walleye too. Nothing like red beans and rice AND baked walleye. On top of that, I had SmallieSaver bring some cornbread which I baked in my new Omnia oven.

Again, we ate like kings……..NOTHING but the best……….MM GOOD.

Cigars, and platys and talking some smack around the fire, and then we all headed to bed. Our plans were to be off the campsite tomorrow morning by 9:00am. We figured this would allow for a decent start in the morning.

Tomorrow would be the longest paddle and portage day I’ve ever done. A milestone that I didn’t think was possible.