We decided last night whilst smoking cigars (and not getting bitten by bugs) that we should head up to Ashdick today. Up around 7am, breakfast of bagels/cream cheese & coffee and we were on the water by 8am. We trolled and jigged for lakers on the northern side of Ester on the way over to the Ashdick portage. There was zero wind and I figured that we should take advantage of the decent conditions. As with Day 1....Good: Zero wind....Bad: No fish. Around 9 we headed over to the Ashdick portage and fished the bay adjacent to the camp site to let the portage clear. While we were grab-assing and trying to jig for lakers two canoes headed over the portage. After a few fish on Zoom flukes (weightless with Gamakatsu G-Lock hooks) we headed over the portage. Not too bad...although after the recent rain from Monday, there was a decent amount of mud. The steep descent into Ashdick had some slick rocks, but we got across ok. This was the first buggy moment of the trip, but with Permethrin on our clothes and head nets they were manageable. Once on Ashdick, we paddled past the other two boats who were fishing on the South end of the lake. My research on the DNR Lakefinder site showed that most of the rocky bottom was on the North end, so we passed by them and headed to the North end of Ashdick. It also appeared to be deeper near the Northern end. After a quick 20 minute paddle, I tied on a Zoom top water frog and went to work. There was a good amount of wood, and it looked like prime Largemouth water. A few casts later my hunch was confirmed with my first BDub Green Bass.

After fishing around the north end of Ashdick and doing pretty well, we decided to check out the north campsite for a lunch stop. We passed the other two canoes on the way over. There were 4 mid-twenties paddlers (3 dudes and a girl) heading towards the Ashdick to Swamp portage. I wished them luck and off they went...hope it wasn't too muddy/buggy.

We had some salami and cheese sandwiches and hit the water for more bass. We found an isolated rock that TM pulled a decent 18.5" bass off of with a crankbait. We paddled arould some small islands and I managed a 19" bass on the Zoom Fluke. Saw a monster bass cruising (20+ easy) but we were drifting too quick and I managed to get hung up on some wood when I tried casting for it...Murphy's Law of Fishing. We continued down the Eastern bank of the lake and TM pulled off a 30" pike with a 3" Berkley Ripple Shad on a 1/8oz. jighead. It proved to be the biggest pike of the trip, good fight on 6lb. test. With clouds on the horizon, we headed back towards the portage back to Ester. With some decent cedar logs in the canoe that we found once back on Ester, we paddled into a stiff South wind back to our campsite. We took it easy in the afternoon and strung a few smallies for dinner. After cleaning them, we noticed they all had black spots throughout the filets, and we decided not to risk it. Beef Stroganoff in a bag (surprisingly, pretty good) with the Bushmills/Cigar chaser...as usual. Pretty good day, no rain...biggest pike and Bass of the trip (both SM and LM), and great weather. Still relatively no bugs, and the campsite is finally starting to dry out. Kind of.

Lakes: Ester Lake, Ashdick Lake, Ester Lake