Sept 6 2015 Day 3: We awoke to overcast skies, but a chance at better weather. This was a layover day so we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast. After breakfast Laura said, let’s go fish. We were on a mission. We headed out trolling a wally diver and a shad rap. As we trolled along I saw an underwater reef on the depth finder that was just off the mouth of a channel between two islands. It was stacked up with fish, with the depth going from 30 feet to 10 feet. My rod bent and I had a fish on. I get it up near the boat and it was a 30” northern. Laura was thrilled as she loves to eat Northern despite the bones. I got it on a clown colored wally diver that I had put on sort of as a joke in hopes that Laura would be catching the fish. I put it on the stringer and we made another pass and this time Laura’s rod goes off, but she misses the fish (she’s a complete rookie fisherman, but she was doing a REALLY good job on monitoring her rod). We turn around and make another pass, her rod goes off again and this time she connects. An 18” walleye comes up and I net it and get it on the stringer too. Woo hoo! Lunch AND dinner today! We made a few more passes over the reef and I picked up another smaller northern. After another pass with no hits we decided to try jigging it. We were going along slowly drifting and jigging. Laura quickly caught a tiny walleye which we released and she was wondering WHY I’m catching all the northern and she’s getting all the walleye. I wondered too as Walleye are my preferred fish and visa versa. Then it happened. I got hung up. I jerked the rod and it wouldn’t come free. A slight breeze blew us over the snag and I was pulling back at the same time, putting way too much stress on the rod. The drag didn’t release any line to ease the tension and SNAP. My rod was broken clean in two. I reeled up and eventually was able to break the line and threw the broken rod behind me in the canoe. Well, no more jigging for me! I only had a medium heavy baitcast rig set up for trolling and Laura’s jigging and trolling rods. I’d make due. I didn’t get mad though, I just wanted to keep fishing. Laura was getting bored with not catching anything so we decided to find new hunting grounds.  We went back to trolling and paddled around as I watched the depth finder for any hidden reefs. As we went around the tip of an island my rod bent hard. At first I thought I was snagged until the “snag” started to move. The fish stayed deep and I was thinking it was a walleye, but it had some weight to it. After a decent battle I got it to the surface and saw it was a nice walleye! I netted it myself and Laura took pictures. I got out my tape measure and he was just shy of 24”, a personal best! I was so happy I forgot all about my broken rod. I let the fish go and we paddled around some more. After no more fish we decided to head back to our first reef and try jigging just a little bit more before lunch. While Laura jigged, I cast around with the wally diver, but didn’t get anything. Laura got hung up and handed the rod to me, I think in fear of breaking her rod too (hers was about $25 total in gear, mine was a ways north of that) but that wouldn’t have bothered me. I got it free and asked if I could use it for a bit. She didn’t mind and I made a cast. Lift, fall. Lift, bite, and set the hook! I had something small on. I got it up to the boat and it’s a snake northern. I didn’t get the net because it was so small and Laura had a peeved smile on her face as she snapped some pictures. Just as I was about to grab the fish the 6 lb. line snapped and off it went with a new piercing hanging from its lip, ha ha. Laura got the very moment the line broke on camera. With that, we paddled back to camp and got ready for lunch, friend northern pike! Laura’s mouth was watering before we even got on land. I quickly filleted it, but did a bad job of removing the Y bones. I then put in Southern Style fish breading from Zatarans and put some butter flavored Crisco in the frying pan. As soon as it was good and hot I put the fish in. It smelled heavenly and I think if I had left it alone Laura would have eaten it out of the pan despite the hot Crisco. It turned a beautiful golden brown and I served it up with a lemon squeezer. That was hardly needed, it was amazing. We gorged ourselves on the fish, picking out bones, but enjoying the meal. That was one of the better fish fry’s I’ve done despite the bones, and the combination of Southern Fry and butter flavored Crisco was a winner. The rest of the day we swam and made a sun shower. After the temp read about 102 I hung it up using the bear line and pulley system. Laura loved the shower and said she felt clean again. I’ll admit, it did feel good to wash off a bit. Once the shower was done and put away we organized camp because a big storm was expected to roll through and the clouds were already starting to form up. Once camp was secure we made fish chowder for dinner with the walleye which was pretty good, but a little on the peppery side. As I cooked, Laura snapped pictures of the clouds and lightning as the storm started to slide south of us. However as I started to add the fish it began to rain so we moved under the rain fly where we ate. We cleaned up and then got into the tent where we played cards for a little while and then went to bed, as lightning and thunder and rain and wind dazzled the night and lit up our eyelids as we tried to sleep, despite the wind and rain the temperature remained warm.