Thursday, July 05, 2012
We’re up about 8:00 today. We decided that we’d be going out fishing on our lake today, and take a daytrip tomorrow due to the forecast. The weather radio is more of the same – hot & humid with temps 100+ back home. Breakfast today is scrambled eggs and more bacon. I really like the precooked bacon for canoe trips. Yes, its more expensive and you get less per package, but not needing to worry about refrigeration is really nice.
After the dishes are done and as poles for the other dads are getting set up, Gavin’s already fishing from shore at the landing for our campsite and lands a 14″ smallie.
He’s happy that after a couple close misses he finally caught one! The other boys grab their poles and try for the same luck as Gavin but nothing else bites.
We’re all set to head out now, and we tool around the lake for a couple hours drifting & casting. I land a 12″ smallie, and Rick and Dan’s canoes both catch fish too. At one point when we were paddling a family of loons let us get about 20′ away. There was 1 adult and 2 chicks, I suspect these are the loons that have been singing to us most evenings and mornings. Its fun, drifting around the lake & getting my mind continually blown by the clarity of the water below us.
Eventually, the lack of bite bores Gavin and he wants to head in. The other canoes follow us a few minutes later, and the boys swim while we get lunch going. Lunch today would have been what we had for dinner last night, but because of the rain we’re instead having pizzas. We get a decent fire going, but the lack of ability to see under the grate when its over the pit makes it difficult to regulate the heat. As a result, the undersides of some of the pizzas get a little on the dark side. They get eaten up pretty quickly, burned crust notwithstanding, and there are several comments about it being ‘awesome’ and ‘cool’ that we’re in the woods eating pizza. 🙂
We get the other batch of ground beef rehydrating for dinner tonight – We’re having hamburger helper.
Dan & Rick hang out mostly in the campsite while the boys and I all go explore in various places. I’ve found a little bay to the North of our campsite where there’s some wintergreen growing and some nice sitting & contimplating rocks. While I’m hanging out there I watch several little fish swimming in the bay, then the big daddy comes in and parks himself under a log. A little while later the fish start to hit up on the surface of the lake, and I hurry back to camp to let the boys that its starting to be good topwater time.
We all jump back into the canoes and work the western shore. The big fish I saw gets caught once or twice, along with several other smaller fish. Gavin & I get lots of near misses but we strike out this time. For all his size its funny the things that bother Gavin…. One example – daddy long legs. It was hard trying to fish with him getting worked up about them in the canoe, and at one point we stop at the other campsite’s beach so I can de-spider the canoe. With all of our hitchhikers now evicted from the canoe we work the shore back towards our camp. I try jigging with a white head and chartreuse twister tail. I watch the big fish turn and look at my lure, then nonchalantly turn around. I guess I should have used a different color head, or twister tail, or both. I think the best luck all week was had using wacky rigged senkos.
Skeeters are starting to bother, so we head back to camp to the relative protection of the fire and start dinner. We use Rick’s skillet for the hamburger helper and its the perfect size for a double batch. Dinner’s consumed in short order and the dishes get done. Rick brought a s’mores kit he had at home and as night falls we have fun making some treats. Originally we had the fixings set up by the logs near the fire, but Dan soon discovers that a graham cracker is moving away – resident mice are trying to make off with it! We watch them for a while, then Dan gets whats left of the cracker back. The outside edge is all nibbled off.
Before getting the bag hung for the night I take some time and move some food around. There’s not a whole lot left, so I’m able to get the supplies for our daytrip tomorrow into one barrel. Satisfied that we’re set, the scotch gets passed around some then the bag gets hung and we head to bed.
Lazy Miles paddled – 1.7. Lakes visited: High