After breakfast the next morning, we headed back out onto the water. The weather had changed – the sun was shining. This forced us to fish the shade along the eastern shoreline. The fishing was noticeably slower. We decided to do some exploring instead. We found a marker someone had erected in a north east bay. It was a long pole anchored in a rock base. Paddling up to it, we got out and stretched our legs. This bay was chock full of lily pads and minnows. Every so often, hundreds of minnows would suddenly break the surface of the water, probably trying to escape a predator. The sky was almost completely clear now. We made our way back to camp for lunch.

After lunch we decided to take a little afternoon trip. We portaged into Ahsub Lake, paddled through Jitterbug and then walked the portage to Adventure. I snapped a couple of pictures of Ben goofing around on a rock and we decided at that point to head back. Ben wanted to do some late afternoon fishing. It sounded good to me. We both wanted another chance at a big smallmouth. I took a quick swim when we got back. The campsite had a nice gravel bottom wading area that dropped off quickly to deep water. Ben rinsed off with a sunshower.

After a spaghetti dinner, we headed back out to the island and rock pile where Ben had caught his all-time best smallmouth. As the sun got lower in the sky, the fishing heated up. We had swirls or strikes on nearly every cast. As we came around the north side of the island, Ben cast his popper next to a large rock. There was a large boil in the water and the popper disappeared. Ben set the hook and after a seesaw battle royale, landed an 18 inch smallmouth - a new all-time best. After a quick picture the fish was released. Ben was pumped! Soon the sun began to set and we headed back into camp. That night, our last night, we sat by a crackling campfire under a starry sky reliving the events of the previous days. Later, as the fire burned down, the northern lights danced faintly across the sky…a memorable BWCA night. Eventually we crawled into the tent and fell asleep.