After our one-night stay on Oyster, we packed up camp to head back closer for our quickly approaching exit day at EP 16. That lake trout taunted us that morning, swimming around grabbing bait fish as we packed up camp. In a last-ditch effort to meet our goal of catching one on this trip, we tried in vane to attract a bite, but it was not meant to be.

We departed camp about 7:45 and with the higher water levels, we took the Oyster River shortcut, bypassing the longer portage into Agnes and coming back into the Moose River south of Agnes. It was a great time saver, but in low water I would never recommend going that direction. I had been worried about my swollen knee not holding up well for that portage, so skipping it was an even bigger bonus for us.

We arrived on a busy Nina Moose around 11:00 am and found many sites already full. Despite this, we somehow ended up with the island peninsula campsite and watched as the rest of the sites on the lake were filled by 3:00, all with large groups. The site is overgrown with poison ivy and only had one decent spot for a hammock, so I set up there and Curt and Jaden pitched their tents on rocks near the front of camp. It worked out well despite my severe allergy to poison ivy, but I had to walk carefully along the trail to the toilet area.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon with a steady breeze, but it was our last day and we really wanted one more fish dinner. Jaden and I started out casting for pike, but after catching a couple smaller ones, we ended up over by Curt who tipped us off to the crappie bite he was onto. Nine nice crappies, several smaller perch, and a nice bluegill later, we had our dinner.

While hanging around camp before and after fishing, we watched a large jackrabbit that seemed to have some ongoing territorial battle with two resident chipmunks. We watched multiple times as the rabbit hopped right through camp chasing them. The chipmunks were clearly as entertained as us, goading the rabbit into chasing them time and time again with their constant chatter. It was a strange and comical sight for sure. The site was also a 10/10 on the mosquito scale, so we tried to hang out in the open areas near shore as much as possible. We finished our trip with a short campfire and were in bed by 10:00 PM, mostly because we were out of Captain Morgan.