Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Ep 14-14 loop with Weeny PMA exploration
by Deeznuts

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/11/2023
Entry & Exit Point: Little Indian Sioux River (north) (EP 14)
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 3
Day 4 of 7
Monday, August 14, 2023

I rose with the sun again and had some tremendous luck fishing. Several decent sized bass. Tensions were still there from the arguments of the previous night and we decided to take an easier day and spend more time fishing. Our destination for the day had us back tracking to Finger Lake. At least from this direction it was much easier. We spent over an hour fishing Ge-Be, with several decent sized bass between the three of us. Even so late in the morning (10am) the fishing was on. We made our way down the portage into pocket and up Ge-Be creek. This is where we would encounter the last group we would see for almost 3 days. Once we made it to Pocket, we fished the banks on our way through. There was no sign of any naked sunbathers this time. Before we hit the narrowest section of Pocket Lake, we decided to start keeping some bass for dinner. We had hoped to get into the walleyes on Pocket but a bass dinner would have to do. Donnie and Drew both snagged some bigger bass and I reeled in an absolute hog. Probably the biggest bass of my life.    Once again we were able to navigate the shallow creek and avoid the portage, but without the breeze we had the previous day it made difficult to traverse around the boulders. We took it very easy through that section. We bee-lined to the 5 star site on the island on Finger. When we started walking around the site we were thrilled with the views but disappointed with the amount of trace left. We pulled batteries from the fire grate, picked rib bones out, picked up several pieces of trash littered around the site, and found a thick birch tree cut down. It wasn’t recent but it was still "green" so maybe from last fall/summer? We did use it to replace a very rotten log by the fire grate so that it wasn’t a waste. I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do but I thought that improving the kitchen area would make better use of it, rather than let it rot behind the campsite.     After a quick lunch it was decided that we needed more fish for dinner, so we loaded ourselves into the canoes and went fishing. I wanted to fish the cliffside in front of the site as it was fairly protected from the wind and we would have a slower drift. Literally Drew's first cast and his rod breaks. We paddled back to shore and got him the duct tape I brought along so he could try and mend it. This rod was broken way beyond repair and unfortunately he wouldn’t have much of an opportunity to fish the rest of the trip.     While Drew was attempting to fix his rod, Donnie was far north of me in the next bay and I was trying to paddle the double canoe around by myself. I sat on the yoke in the middle which definitely helped, but it was so odd trying to paddle in that large of a canoe by myself. Looking back, I should have just called Donnie over to fish in the double with me, but then I wouldn’t have caught my pike along the cliff face. It was about 20" and I didn’t have a tape with me so after wrestling my orange and Black rooster tail out of the pike I released it. I was sad not to be able to get a picture but it was difficult to get a picture myself and release the fish in a timely manner. He was already not looking great by the time I got him untangled from the net so getting him back in the water was of the utmost importance. It took the fish a few minutes to come back around, and while I was struggling to get him going, Donnie pulled back to camp with a bass.     We had 4 or 5 bass to eat for dinner. Drew was our knife man and filleted them up perfectly. The one fillet that came off my bass was bigger than both my hands! I had brought breadcrumbs, foil, and used mayo packets and a ranch packet as a binder. I made a bushcraft frier with the foil and some branches. Super lucky that I added just the right amount of oil. There was barely any left by the end and made for easy cleanup. Some of the best fish I've ever had. We made some mac n cheese to go with it and it was just phenomenal.    The plan was to star gaze and hang out under the bug tent. I made it until 9pm and had just a little too much to drink so I put myself to bed. The stars would have been beautiful if I could have gotten them to stop spinning lol.