This was definitely the best day of the trip. The whole trip we were so lucky to have nice weather but this day really took the cake. The sun was bright and hot, temps were in the mid-60s low 70s, and nice puffy clouds floating across the sky. Occasionally one of them would block the sun and give us a little respite from the heat, it couldn’t have been better. A good 5 mile west-north-west wind blew us from our island paradise to the east end of the lake where we were going to visit Curtain falls that day. The plan was to have a day trip to Curtain falls, do some fishing in the area, and just blow a couple hours out there checking things out. Another lazy day getting up, none of us are morning people I guess, we got up around 8am and lazily made coffee and packed the canoes with our day packs and fishing gear to leave the site around 9-10am. It only took about half an hour to 40 minutes to paddle across the lake. I was under the impression that the water actually poured into Crooked from Iron Lake, so as we’re looking for the portage to the waterfall I was thinking we’d have to avoid getting sucked into the current and caught in the falls. To my surprise Crooked pours into Iron! We paddled nearby the site on the far east end, just south of the portage that goes into Crooked, we checked out the little nearby island with a U.S. Marker on it, took our pictures with the marker because we didn’t know there was going to be another marker at the top of the falls.

   Paddling up to the portage to Curtain falls we notice 6 other canoes just pulled up on the grass, looked like 3 different groups. The walk was easy, the portage was bone dry, the woods were alive, birds chirping and the heat and sun keeping most of the bugs at bay. First we took a left, checked out the portage on the north end of the water, about 30 rods up from the entrance to the south. Then we continued on the seemingly long walk to the falls. After what felt like a long walk, you could finally hear the waterfall in the background. The low tone of the water roaring was a pleasant sound to pick up through the thick woods as the end of the portage came about, our walking pace increased, you could see water raging on the left through about 50 feet of thick pine trees and then finally you come out of the woods and atop a little clearing that opens up into the giant body of water that is Sunday Bay of Crooked Lake. The waterfall was gorgeous, the pristine water of Crooked gently spilled over the top of the waterfall into a chaotic torrent of water. Watching the waterfall in amazement I started to wonder why this waterfall doesn’t get more popularity in the Minnesota community, the BWCA doesn’t share its secrets with just anyone I suppose. There was a dad and his boys at the top of the falls, hanging out just enjoying the sun. A trail off to the side goes up through the woods and back to a flat landing about 100 yards upstream of the falls, must be the portage in from Crooked, walking back there 2 guys were sitting in their Helinox chairs just smoking cigars, watching the falls and apparently talking life and business. It was a great spot to sit in your chairs shooting the breeze with a friend.

   After seeing the sights and soaking it in, we decide it’s time to see if there’s fish in it. Immediately the guys start fishing all the spots that “look good”, and the fishing wasn’t as good as we’d hoped. It didn’t take long for the guys to start thinking we weren’t going to catch much in the bright sun, they weren’t far from wrong. I was determined, being from Montana and growing up fishing rivers, there were too many delicious looking pockets and eddies of water for there not to be fish there. As fly fisherman say, it was all about getting a good drift. I took my little rod, put on my trusty dusty orange jig that had been delivering the fish for me so far all trip, flicked a leech into the really fast current and reeled it in until I could feel the swirly eddy take it away, first cast I landed a nice eater sized walleye. Shoot. Where do I put him? I don’t have my stringer on me; one of the guys has it in his pocket. I noticed there are big holes in the granite rock I’m standing on, holes filled with water, a natural fish keeper! I plunked him in there, casted out again and hooked a nice smallmouth, thinking I was going to keep on catching fish I toss him back. Being the great guide I am, I know I gotta get the guys onto these fish so I turn around and try to persuade any and all to join me in my newfound honey hole. One of the guys comes over with his slip bobber rig, a rig I had professed for months would be the best setup they’d use on the whole trip, and he flicks in his leech, and I notice right away he’s not fishing the current naturally. I help him out, “let out line” “just let the current sweep it around”, sure as heck he opens his bell, the bobber swirls too and away, and then it goes down. Walleye on! It’s a great feeling getting your buddies onto fish. The rest of the guys find their way down the portage to the entry point from the northern side of the downstream river there on the Iron side and start to fish what looked like a heavenly fish sanctuary that couldn’t let down. It did. They fished it hard for about an hour. Bobbers, top waters, bottom baits, jigs, the fish just weren’t interested in biting back there. I think the sun really had a lot to do with the mediocre bite. An hour and a half or so of hanging out at the falls and it’s time to start thinking about leaving. The fishing just wasn’t as hot as we’d have liked, and the afternoon was flying by. Everyone walked down to the boats, I went up to the top to see the falls one more time and also to make sure no one else in our party was up there, more so to see the falls one last time. By now the guys sitting on the portage were gone, the dad and his boys had left, and nobody was up there, the universe had carved out a little window just for me to stand up there and enjoy Curtain Falls alone. It was spectacular. I stood on the portage, looked out to Crooked, and said “Someday Crooked, we’ll meet again”. I didn’t do one of those cheesy yells where you stick your arms in the air, I just looked out onto the vast openness of Sunday Bay, back down the falls, and felt thankful to be there at such a perfect time. I grabbed my rod and headed down the portage to join my group.

   After leaving Curtain Falls we headed back to our campsite, it was about 3pm when we got back. We decided to take the rest of the day easy, we passed around some cliff bars, filled up the water bottles, and went out to catch some fish and get some food for dinner to add to the dehydrated food I brought for everyone. Some of the guys went back to the little Bass Bay on foot, other guys went to the aptly named “Bigass Walleye Point”, the wind had changed, the weather wasn’t the same, it was apparent the fish weren’t feeding where they were the day before. The spots weren’t delivering. I offer to take out my buddy who we’ll call Wisconsin Guy, I like Wisconsin Guy, and he’s calm and patient and has an attitude that is positive and energetic no matter what comes our way, he’s one of those guys that you bring along on a trip like this and you can just tell he is truly thankful to be there for every minute. So Wisconsin Guy and I head out in a 2 man canoe, we paddled up Peterson bay, I had read so much of it being amazing that was no way I wasn’t giving it a good shot. We paddle back in there, trying all the usual spots. It becomes obvious this bay is actually pretty darn shallow, and my walleye-radar was telling me they’d be deeper than the shallow weedy areas that took up most of Peterson Bay. About an hour of putzing around and casting at everything that looked good, we found a little spot back there where there’s a good hole about 20 feet across. Wisconsin Guy is more of a trout fisherman, and has limited experience with Walleye. He starts to talk about the characteristics of a walleye bite. I explain “It’s like an ‘electric tick’ they’ll just tap your line like a ‘pop’ or a ‘tick’ and if you don’t set the hook then that’s all you’ll get”. That’s all it took to dial in Wisconsin Guy, after I told him that he went on to boat 3 walleye so fast I couldn’t do anything but put them on the stringer for him. Couldn’t even tie my own jig on before he’d be throwing another one back at me to get on the stringer. Needless to say I handed the stringer to him so he could slow himself down! We kept on that hole until it seemed to be empty, threw a couple small guys back, and giggled as our friends continued to paddle around casting at the weedy pike/smallmouth spots.

   The sun started to drop lower and lower, it was slowly getting darker and we were inching our way back to camp out of Peterson bay. I had Wisconsin guy sitting on front just casting nonstop while I was the “trolling motor” in the back of the boat. I’d get a few casts out, paddle to correct us, cast some more, paddle one more stroke, it worked great. The wind was calm and things really started to slow down, paddling wise, it gave me a chance to start to fiddle around with vertical jigging, a technique that has long since eluded me as useful. I found a spot in the little bay there near the opening where it must have been about 8-10 feet deep, I was just playing with my rod, “bottom must be there” so I real in a little bit, just trying to figure out what works best for me, learning where the bottom is and how to move my jig in a realistic lively way. “This must be the bottom, and if I keep my rod right here I’m about 6” off the bottom, and I guess I’ll try this little slow rise to give it a little life, then I’ll drop it back down to that 6” spot or so……….” And then BAM my rod tip goes down hard. A good fight ensued, a better fight than I thought a walleye would put up, and if it was a walleye it had to be a big one. It ended up being a huge smallmouth that looked almost blonde. With no net (too much to pack), landing such a beast was a tricky endeavor. I ended up losing him rookie style when I tried to lift him in the boat by the line, line snapped and away he went. My last orange jig caught firmly on his lip. It was a magic moment for me as I had finally figured out how to use the vertical method. I gave it another 10 minutes of solid effort to no avail, the sun was down pretty far now, and it was time to paddle in. I was on a high.

   Back at camp the guys were a few fish into cleaning, WI Guy and I added our fish to the pile and I got to cooking and preparing the kitchen and dishes. We cooked some of the fish over an open fire; we cooked some of it in breading with Ghee on the stove, and had long grain wild rice and more chili with our fish. Just couldn’t miss the spot with all that food. After cooking, I was down on the rock by myself cleaning dishes when Wisconsin guy comes up to help me was some dishes, was nice to have the company to distract me from the dishes, they sucked that night, for some reason the food caked onto the dishes pretty badly. We talked about our wives at home, Wisconsin Guy is a younger fellow, younger than I am, I’m recently married, and it was nice to hear from someone who “gets” what I’m going through, and he has a way of not coming off too strong when he has a conversation with you. As we’re sitting there washing dishes, I looked up to the moon and realized there was a moondog that night! I yelled back at the guys to check it out. Medic man knew what we were looking at but I don’t think the others really understood how rare or cool of a phenomenon this was. I took it in, I couldn’t believe how lucky we were that day and that moondog was the perfect cherry on top of an otherwise perfect day.

   The rest of the night 5 of us stayed up and had some drinks and talked about everything from past stories, big foot, to work, and politics. Seemed like most of the guys wanted to take it pretty easy, but I had a water bottle full of Lemon Vodka and needed help polishing that off because there was no way I was going to be drinking the last full day we were out there for fear of a hangover on the paddle out. Pike Guy graciously helped me empty that bottle, together the two of us got a pretty solid buzz and just sat and laughed together with the other three fellas telling stories. The moon continued to be super bright all night.