We switch fishing partners today, and as Pete and I are 10 minutes away from camp, I call out to him that we’re each going to catch our biggest walleye today. He asks how I can be so sure, and I tell him it’s because I forgot the camera back at our site! It’s another sunny day, but a bit breezy, so we push our way up into Conmee to try some of the same spots from last night and some new water too. We are unable to get into any more of the big girls in the morning, but have enough action to keep our interest. While at lunch on an island, Brian decides to check in with his wife via SatPhone. He was going to wait one more day since we knew Game 7 of the NHL playoffs was to be tonight, and we are curious as to whether or not our beloved Blackhawks were going to win. Good news from her—they actually had won the cup Monday night in Game 6! With this good news in mind, we work our way around the lake. Oddly, an 18” largemouth bass grabs my jig at one point and gives us a taildance show before he’s released. Later, my rod bends deeply as I get a solid hookset on a fish that means business. I let out a whoop as I stretch the tape to an honest 27.5” and this guy is chunky! Of course, there is no camera, so I am relegated to holding that fish in my mind’s eye. Pete also catches a 27.5” and Brian’s boat grabbed another big girl. Then, we trade turns catching a 26” fish each. We noticed that the larger fish had a definite blue color to them, especially noticeable in the webbing between the ribs of the dorsal fin. Ones that were closer to eater size had more of a golden hue to the skin. A bit later, we heard a float plane getting louder and louder coming from the North. It made a low pass, doubled back, and then landed down in the southwest end of the lake, much to our surprise. It was not a DeHaviland Beaver or Otter, and it had no canoes attached to it. We couldn’t see where it landed, but heard its engine shut off for awhile, then it restarted. The plane took off and we saw it banking up towards the north again. It was an eery feeling—had one of the high school campers gotten hurt and needed to be evacuated?

We celebrated another great day of fishing around the campfire that night, and we decided to stay another night on Conmee to see if we could tempt any more big ones, since the weather pattern was holding.