Rolling over this morning tells me I am sore. Yesterday was good work. The boys are up and yapping around the fire grate. Not sure where that energy comes from. We decide to make up the fresh eggs, some frozen sausage, dehydrated hash browns and dried fruit. Nice! But took a while as I am a camp stove novice. The eggs took so long the kids were already done eating and starting to adventure. The portage shepherd dog happily doubled as a food waste disposal. Happy he is sleeping in someone elses tent.

We decide we will stay put on this lake for the day, no day tripping and get the fishermen fishing. As we prep for a day on the water, the boys explore the island. Never thought about it until now, but an island site is great for kids, as there is less concern about getting them lost in the woods.

As we start are fishing, the choice seems to be small Rapala’s into the shallows. It ends up being a while but the Smallies start coming in. I decide to switch it up and am instantly pleased with the virtues of the Power Bait leeches on a jig head . No mess, they last for multiple catches, and I always prefer to fish actively versus watching a bobber. Smallies are all over the drop-offs. They come in one after the other. My son doesn’t switch to the gulp bait because of recommendations to use shallow divers from our other canoes. I stop fishing to avoid discouraging him with all the fish I am bringing up from the deep, and start running my "back of the canoe guide service" to fallen trees and big rocks. Eventually he notices every time I drop in my line with the Powerbait leech, I catch a fish and he switches it up.

We all rejoin each other for lunch on an open but well pined point that looks like it should be a camp, northeast of the island. This is a great picnic area, and we all refilled our water bottles and set up for Lake Trout fishing. The thermometer reading was right for trout at 50 feet. So we set up some crazy diving space station things. They are like dipsy divers, but more airplane shaped. It took three fairly smart adults staring at charts on the package and a 10 minute debate to figure out the correct combination of leaders, swivels and space stations with innumerable configuration possibilities.

Quickly I discover my son doesn’t appreciate the tedium of trolling for lake trout, but we did eat trout for dinner thanks to the other canoes. Dinner was a combination of foil pouch potatoes, hamburger and veggies with trout on the side. The kids preferred pan fried, Shore Lunch coated over foiled and broiled. They were both excellent.

The dog didn’t benefit from our leftovers night 2 as we saved a 1/3 of the foil dinner for breakfast hash.

After discussion about plans for tomorrow, there is more bass fishing and swimming. The other adult activity was trying to quiet the kids for others benefit. (Mixed success there.) The soak before bed made going to bed a bit easier, that and exhaustion. West Pike Lake