Friday, June 14, 2013 This day we decided on a day trip to Ballard which was supposed to be a walleye fisherman's dream lake. We packed stuff for a shore lunch and trolled for lakers on the way to the portage; no luck. It was a nice sunny day, but the wind was a problem with some strong gusts. We put in at Ballard and there were largemouth bass everywhere: all small. We caught a few and headed for the nearest point to catch our walleye. Then to the next point. Then to the next point. Hmmm. We fished pinch points with current, fished a reef we found with the depth finder. We fished jigs, we fished cranks. I found my drift sock seemed to speed our drifts up but made it impossible to paddle back. Great. Finally we caught 1 15 incher. I told my son, if Jesus Christ came to help like he did at the sermon on the mount, we had enough for a shore lunch. We were getting hungry, so we decided to fish around the island where there was supposed to be a camp. I tied our lunch walleye to the gunnel with a slip knot: which did work. The knot slipped as we paddled to the island and our lunch walleye disappeared into the depths. I almost capsized us trying to grab it. After that we fished around the island and finally found some small 15-18 inch walleyes. We invited 3 to lunch. I filleted the walleyes while Andrew continued to fish around the island. We fried up the walleyes and made some potato chips. I don't know whether I would have felt the same if I was eating the exact same meal at a restaurant, but on that sun kissed island on that beautiful lake, it was the best meal I ever had. After lunch, we caught a few more bass, then paddled back to the portage. I paddled the west shoreline, while my son cast for bass, getting a few more smallie. We then trolled back to camp for lakers: no luck again. We ate the last of our black and blue burgers for dinner. I experimented insulating a blue barrel with reflectix (I saw it on this site). I was moderately disappointed in how long the ice lasted (3 days) but still it was nice to have real food for awhile. The bugs chased us into the tent and hammock and we called it a day. My warbonnet hammock turned out to be so comfortable I had no regrets about ending the day.