Thursday, September 24, 2020 I wake up around 730, to the same E wind and overcast. Slept decent last night which was good after the ab thing. I’m in no rush- today is base camp day. I string my tarp up for a windblock so I can make breakfast in peace. Works well. I make a big ole pancake. I take a few casts off the campsite with the Husky Jerk and I hook but lose a smallie. Where there’s one there’s usually more, right? I ready a worm/bobber rig. First cast- bobber down! A 14” smallie. Perfect for dinner. 3rd cast- bobber down again! This time it’s an 18” smallie. Just a slab. Awesome. Let him go. I try for awhile more but get no more bites. So, I get ready to head out. I thought about going back to Knife, but don’t want to risk having to paddle my way home against a strong E wind. So, I paddle into the wind, up the N Arm of the S Arm. I check campsites on the way. As I head across the deeps, I put an ounce of lead on with the hot lure from yesterday. No bites. At the 2nd campsite, I switch to an 11D Flicker Minnow, silver color. I don’t troll 5 min and I get a decent 15” smallie. Then, right away another bite, this time a 29” pike. Then another about the same size. I’m onto something here! As I near the next campsite, I get another one. This one is 30” and fat! It gives me a jump that a smallie would be proud of. I also miss a couple of bites. Finally, I get to the portage into Hanson and walk it. Nice portage. The waterfall isn’t much, not much flow. Takes me 8 minutes to do the portage. It’s a little less than ½ mile in length. The troll back to camp sucks. I get one good bite in the “hot zone”, but it doesn’t stick. I stop and try to jig some fish I see on my sonar in 30’ of water- possibly walleyes. No luck though. When I’m over the deeps I stop and try to jig some lakers? I can see down 60-70’. No luck with that either. I do get one hit trolling across the abyss, but it doesn’t stick. Rats! I check out the other campsite near Eddy Falls- mine is better. I get back to camp around 5:15 and have a great fish fry with mashed potatoes. After dinner I try the worm/bobber again. I get one wimpy bite, but he won’t stick with it. It has basically calmed down for the most part, so I have a nice fire and write. Only saw one canoe all day today. They came out of the Eddy portage and headed for Hanson. It’s surprisingly not busy! Had no problems with mice tonight. Perhaps the owl got them? The weather today was partly cloudy with an East wind pretty much all day until evening. It was around 60 degrees.~South Arm Knife Lake