My girlfriend and I woke early to a beautiful sunrise and paddled to the north end of Phoebe where I enjoyed the best hour of fishing of my life. When I arrived at “the spot”, I cast a purple taildancer near some lily pads. Before I reeled it at all to give action, a big smallie hit it as it bobbed on the surface of the water. That was the start to nonstop action for the next hour as I got hit on almost every cast. Big smallies and decent pike, everywhere! And then, something else hit my lure and it didn’t fight. It was one of the few walleye I’ve ever caught and the only one on the trip, but she was a beauty! About 18 inches with a deep gold belly the color of the sun at 5pm and a dark back like the tannic lakes we paddle through!

We headed back to camp as it began to rain (I think that was part of fishing magic) and cleaned the walleye at a big rock on the way. Back at camp we set up the tarp and made breakfast while the rest of our friends woke up. It drizzled on and off the rest of the day. We explored the island, sat around the fire, and I took another trip up to the fishing spot with another member of our group.

That afternoon as we sat around the fire, I mistakenly deleted all the photos on my girlfriend’s camera – including those of my magical fishing expedition! See my sad face below… The delicious walleye mac and cheese helped make up for it a little.