Sunday, August 23, 2020 We are on a leisurely schedule now since we are not moving camp. Still overcast skies with some clear spots. Get up early, have some coffee (Instant..next time I’m bringing REAL coffee) and try some shoreline fishing from camp. Not much happening except a few nibbles. We come back to camp and cook up some breakfast. Then pack up the fishing gear, lunch, and head out to Bonnie lake. We do some trolling and casting on our way there. By the time we get there it’s close to noon so we eat lunch and give the pike a short reprieve. After eating, we launch onto the lake and begin our assault on the fish. Bam, I catch the first fish of the trip while the other canoe doesn’t even have any lines in the water. It was only a 5” baby bass but it’s the first. And only fish I catch on the whole trip. I’ll have to work on my technique or something. Steve hooks a pike and starts reeling it in. the line snaps and he loses the fish and his spoon. Then it happens again and I’m suspicious about such an easy snapping line. I look at the end and it looks like a unraveled knot. So I tie on the next leader as his record is 2-0 and were running short on leaders. Meanwhile the other guys are drifting across the lake. After a few minutes he hooks another one. The line stays tied and we get it to the boat. We’re thinking to release it but he swallowed the hook and we can’t get it out cleanly. So we figure it’s a keeper. We’re close to a campsite and we figure to a check it out and get the fish on the stringer too. We look over the camp and put as a undesirable. Very rocky, uneven, and little protection from the sun and wind. Back in the canoe and we start fishing for bass in the shallows. As we’re just doing our first circle, Steve says “look at that, they flipped their canoe!” Wait what? Sure enough, I look over and see the bottom of the canoe facing up with two guys in the water. We stow our poles and crank over to help. We rescue the gear that we see and proceed to try to help them into their canoe. Unfortunately none of us studied that skill and weren’t doing it the right way. Note to crew. Acquire that skill before the next trip! We drug everything to the shore and got it done there. What happened we asked? It was because of another bad knot. Bill caught a pike and reeled it up to the boat. Then he lifted it out of the water and asked what to do with it. Martin said to swing it into the boat. As he got it over the canoe, the knot let go and the fish laned in the bottom. Now there’s a fish flapping around in the bottom of the boat with a lure and sharp hooks. It did a ninja fish and tried to stick Martin with the hook. So he stood up to get out of the way…… I think that’s one of the basic rules is not to stand up in a canoe. We’ll put that on the list of lessons learned. Both had their PFDs on so we knew that lesson and it certainly paid off Final tally. Caught one keeper pike. Lost: tackle box of lures and leaders, iPhone 8 (that was sitting on top of the open tackle box) ,fishing pole, two days supply of GORP. Two more lures and leaders form out canoe. And one iPhone 5 submerged and kaput. But is was an adventure! We portaged back to SAK and back to camp. I look around for firewood along the shore but it’s slim pick’ns and none around the camp. So I go up the trail behind the latrine to start looking. It’s a steep climb up to the cliff but I keep going because there is no wood. Steve sees me going and decides to come along. Finally I start finding some and throw it down the hill. Heck, I’m almost to the top and there’s plenty of light. We climb the last bit and get to the top with a fabulous view of the lake. It’s not Thunder Point but still pretty good. We have dinner with some fish appetizer then settle down by the fire to plan the next day. Final plan is that it was an eventful day and we’re in no mood to do an early start pack and go. We have seen a LOT of canoes going back and forth and don’t want to end up in a lousy campsite. So day tripping it is! That way we can concentrate of fishing! Another night in the lean-to tent and still no bugs.