We started today with a hearty breakfast of pancakes and since the waters on Crooked Lake looked calm, we decided to make the trek over to Saturday Bay, to explore some new territory and hopefully find some active bass. Alas, as is often the case, it didn’t take too long before the winds started to pick up strength. As I paddled across the top of Friday Bay I quickly discovered that my solo canoe did not have enough ballast in the stern, as I had to really dig in hard to maintain a somewhat straight course. Once I realized the situation I charted the shortest course to a protected shoreline, where I pulled in and found an ample supply of rocks to level my load so that I could stay on course. This was something I hadn’t had to do in the past when paddling a tandem canoe. By the time we got to Saturday Bay the wind had picked up a bit and kept shifting directions, making the fishing difficult, particularly for me in my solo canoe. I did use my anchor bag quite frequently, picking it up to position my canoe in a new location and then dropping anchor and casting from my new position. We picked up a fair number of bass in the 15-17” range and a few decent northerns, but the wind and the sun made for a challenging day, particularly as the wind continued to pick up speed as the day progressed.

By late afternoon we rendezvoused our canoes near the entrance to Saturday Bay and decided that the strong southerly wind was going to make for a challenging paddle back to camp. After reviewing our maps we planned our route back to basecamp, noting how best to stay sheltered from the wind, and looking at areas where we could pull ashore if necessary.

The journey back to our basecamp went well until we reached he northeast corner of Friday Bay. At that point we were exposed to the full force of the wind as it whipped its way up Friday Bay. Seeing lots of whitecaps rolling up the lake I nosed my canoe into the shelter of a point that offered protection from the wind. We decided at that point to wait out the wind in this sheltered area that included a small cove and some flat rocks that made for a good resting spot, using our PDFs as pillows. While my buddy and I were resting in the sun and discussing how long we would wait out the wind, his 15-year old son, Gabe, was casting in the calm water of the cove and soon landed a couple nice bass.

After resting at this spot for a good 30 minutes I decided to explore the point of this peninsula. There was a small rock island about 60 feet past the end of the peninsula and so I rigged up a jig and decided to cast into the current between the point and the island. I was only halfway through my first retrieve when a walleye took my hook. Not having a stringer with me I released the fish. But when a caught a similar walleye on my second cast I hollered to my friends to bring a stringer. It literally took me about six casts before I had four nice eating sized walleyes on a stringer. I then caught and release another dozen walleyes over the course of the next hour. My buddies were having similar success, as we had clearly stumbled upon a school of walleyes hanging in the current off this point.

While this walleye frenzy kept us all occupied for a good hour, we noticed that the wind was starting to let up, although not by much. We also noticed that the sky in the west had turned black as an ominous bank of thunderheads was rolling in just a little too fast for our comfort. After looking at the time, and the waves that were still rolling up Friday Bay, we decided that it was time to load our canoes and make a dash across the bay to some islands that would offer shelter from the wind and give us the easiest route back to camp. Although we had all been looking forward to fresh walleye for dinner, we decided that weather conditions weren’t going to make it possible to spend the time filleting the fish on our stringer, nor did we want to paddle across the bay with a stringer towing behind a canoe, so we released the fish and watched each one swim strongly back to the deep.

The wind was still blowing hard as we crossed the bay, but it had definitely let up some from earlier in the day, and both canoes were spurred on by the dark clouds that were rolling in close behind us. We made it back to camp and put our canoes safely away for the day and I quickly rehydrated a meal of hamburger helper while the others made sure that everything in camp was secure and either in a tent or under the screen shelter. As we ate our dinner and put away dishes thunder was rumbling to the north of us in more intensity. There would be no evening of sitting by the water and relaxing. Instead we retired to our tents just minutes before the sky opened up with a torrent of rain, interspersed with lightning and loud cracks of thunder.