Sunday, July 15, 2007 We’re up at 5:45AM. Instant oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. We packed our lunch and fishing gear and left for a day trip to Cattyman falls. We trolled as we traveled and I caught a really nice smallmouth, maybe 3 lbs. Although we wanted fish dinner that night, we had some traveling ahead of us, so we let her go. Portaged to Ashigan Lake (55 rods) and from Ashigan to Gibson (105 rods). Jamie wanted to carry the canoe this time, so I carried our day pack and the loose stuff. We left our gear at the portage to Cattyman Lake and hiked up to the falls. Really beautiful area, and the falls were definitely worth the trip. It was mid-day and the weather was picture perfect. Blue skies & bright sun without a cloud in sight. The first time we’d seen that on our trip. We started back to Ensign. We fished a bit on Gibson (below the falls) and Ashigan, but had no success. It’s pretty windy by the time we get back to Ensign. We troll back to camp, but don’t catch anything. We each snag bottom a few times but never lose a lure. It’s tough to get back over the snag with the heavy wind. We make it back to camp by 2PM. I read for a while and Jamie takes a nap. We head back out to fish at around 4PM. We’re both anxious for fish dinner and figure we’ve got a few hours to catch it. It’s still pretty windy. Jamie catches a nice northern and by the time we get it to the canoe, we’ve been blown within 10 feet of shore. We paddle the rest of the way in and I filet the northern on a rock on shore. We’re not near any campsites, so the remains get carted up into the woods. We’re both getting hungry, so we decide to troll back to camp, but don’t catch anything. Dinner is fried fish, corn, mashed potatoes and garlic bread. We burn the garlic bread and it’s pretty much inedible. The rest of dinner is outstanding. We build our first campfire of the trip and have hot cocoa by the fire. Neither of us has a desire for the rum we brought along. In fact, we’ve had maybe 4 drinks between us. More than ¾ of the bottle will make it back with us. Jamie tells me that this is her second favorite vacation that she’s ever taken and that she’s not ready to leave. She asks if we can come back next year and stay at least a full week. She left the planning for this trip up to me, but wants to help plan our next trip. Today was a great day, probably our best of the trip, and had a nice ending. Neither one of us wants to leave the next day. We crawl into the tent and read by flashlight for a bit before falling asleep.