Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Last night was so peaceful. Today the plan was to travel to Loon Lake. We had to travel west through Crooked and Clark and then portage south to Loon. Rain was expected sometime, so we packed our rain gear. We took fishing gear and I also took my camera.
The opportunities to view wildlife on Crooked Lake were fantastic this morning. We saw a female Common Loon with two juveniles not far from our camp. They were a constant presence in the SE area of the lake. We then passed a single adult Loon within 20 feet followed by a solitary Merganser along the southern shore of the boot-like peninsula. As we were about to turn into the section of the lake just west of the toe of the boot, we heard a lot of loons calling back and forth. Then we noticed a Bald Eagle swimming in the lake by paddling with its wings, a kind of a breast stroke. We'd never seen anything like it. We weren't sure whether it was injured or whether it had heavy prey that prevented it from flying. As soon as it reached the boot's toe, it hopped on shore and proceeded to shake the water off its feathers. Soon enough it flew SW over our heads and landed in a dead tree. It started to eat whatever it had in its talons. Only later, after enlarging a photo, did I understand that it had caught a large fish, probably a bass. We moved away westward toward the portage into Clark. This was a much shallower portion of the lake. We noticed white birds on the water, and as we drew closer, we could see that they were two adult Trumpeter Swans with two gray juveniles.

The landing at the portage on the Crooked side was unpleasant: it was exceedingly muddy, stinky, and covered in duckweed. The portage itself, although 112 rods long, was fairly easy and ended at a wonderful, long, sand beach. Because the morning was still early, we decided to try fishing for a while before moving on to Loon Lake. We put on our rain jackets because it started to mist. Pretty soon it started to rain hard and I had a fish on and then another and another in quick succession. I was surprised and delighted because I am an indifferent fisherman. They were all fat Large Mouth Bass. I was casting into the middle of the lake with a red Rapala Jointed Shad Rap (7'-15' running depth) with a small in-line weight about 18 inches in front of it. After that, the catching slowed down and the rain stopped, so we decided to return to the beach for a quick lunch.

After lunch, we set out again to fish the territory we had previously covered. After not catching anything for a while, we decided to change tactics and went with heavily weighted jigs to get the bait down to the bottom. We concentrated on a narrower section of the lake and that is where we found four more bass: two for Jim and two for me. Because of the Sylvania fishing regulations, however, we could not keep any of the bass we caught. Only on Crooked Lake are fishermen allowed to keep bass and then only if the bass are consumed at a Crooked Lake campsite. The regulations regarding other species allow you to keep Walleye = 20”, Lake Trout = 30”, and Northern Pike = 30”. These size slots mean that you are practically limited to fishing for panfish if you want to eat what you catch. Jim had some small lures suitable for panfish, but my tackle was designed for larger fish.
By the time we stopped fishing, it was mid afternoon, so we decided to return to our camp rather than pressing on to Loon Lake. We went down to the peninsula to enjoy the sunset after dinner and then sat around the campfire talking until bed. The sun went down behind a narrow peninsula to the west of us and the deep orange glow of the sunset shone through the trees and flowed around the peninsula to color the sky and water to the south.