Day 2: Sunday, Sept. 23

We woke up to see some sun and puffy clouds, and got geared up to try the fishing on Jean.

Greg and I decided to try some likely-looking walleye spots in the northern part of Jean, and had very few bites while trying our usual techniques. We picked up a couple of small pike and the occasional smallmouth, but no ‘eyes. My depth finder indicated surface water temps of 59 degrees (a lot warmer than the air temps of low 40’s) and we figured that the north wind the day before shut off the fishing somewhat. We used some information that I had gotten to hit some deeper spots in western Jean, and got into some larger smallmouth (18-19” range). A fairly strong west wind kicked up after lunch, so we decided to troll for lakers across the main body of Jean, without much success. We got out of the wind for a bit in a sheltered bay to fish for pike, catching a half dozen but no large ones.

By now, we were well downwind of our site, so Greg and I pointed the bow of our canoe into the setting sun and headed back to camp. It was a 30 minute paddle into a headwind, and it was amazing how much progress the sun made as it was setting as we returned. We arrived a bit tired and discouraged, but were treated to a gorgeous sunset. The other two boats made their way back from further west.

So, fishing our first day of Jean turned out to be mostly a bust, bur our stomachs didn’t suffer any since we had pork chops to eat. As we wrapped up dinner, the mouse activity picked up quite a bit in camp, to a point where it was not unusual to see three at any time when we shined our headlamps over towards the food packs. We were glad for our new blue barrel to protect our food, and it served a reminder for the rest of the trip that the little buggers get really aggressive as winter approaches.

We discussed the plans for the next day, and since this trip left us a fair amount of flexibility, we decided to press on the next morning to get to Burntside after not being able to figure out the walleye pattern. Pete and I stayed up later than the rest, and were treated to a gorgeous star-studded sky and a waxing gibbous moon.