After having some coffee I grabbed my fishing pole and headed out to throw the lure a bit. I didn't figure it would be too productive, but it gave me an opportunity to watch the sun rise. The Manitoba view did not disappoint.
After breakfast two boats headed way up river for a full day of fishing. Drew took the Iowa/Kansas/Missouri crew while Bob took myself and young Arizona guy. The ride up river was cold, but I figured it would be worth it since the fishing is typically much better up there.
The Drew boat was going to be jigging, and we decided to cast for pike. I'm not sure that the fishing could be considered The Great Shark Hunt but it was moderately tolerable. We motored around several bays and rocky points, casting into weeds or on the rocks for pike. We would get into a good pile of them followed by long stretches of nothing. Pike are normally pretty aggressive so it was very unusual that the northern pike fishing required so much finesse. Several fish were only brought in by carefully playing the lure, or casting back to where a strike was felt a few times. I prefer lots of pike action, but using skill can be fun as well.
None of the fish were huge (in fact the jigging boat got a couple bigger pike than we did), but several were pretty respectable.
I was also able to hook into one decent smallmouth bass. This was in a sandy and grassy spot right by some rocks - pretty good smally habitat.
After fishing for several hours we headed to rendezvous with the other boat for lunch - a proper shore lunch on an actual shore. Between the two boats we had enough fish for a pretty good lunch along with potatoes and onions. Drew also found some lobster claw mushrooms which we ate. They were good, but the guides may have just fed them to us to cause us to hallucinate that the fishing was better than it actually was - far out dude.
The spot we ate at had a Canadian Shield ridge off to one side which I hiked up. The view of the water and endless wilderness was stunning. This would be a great place to get lost; this would be a great place to get lost on purpose.
The sandy area where the boats were beached was riddled with wolf tracks. It was pretty cool to see so many of them - I've yet to see a wolf up here despite coming up four times. This will have to do for now.
There were some other tracks as well, some of which I couldn't immediately identify and one set which looked like it came from a small bear. No doubt the wolves and bears are there to scavenge on fish leavings from shore lunches.
We jigged a bit after lunch but I find jigging to be painfully boring unless the action is reasonably good. There were a few bites, and Arizona brought in a couple fish, but it was slow. Arizona got his line wrapped around the motor which took a while to untangle; I asked to finish up by casting again and we brought in a final couple pike.
The ride down river was really nice with warm temperatures and skies still very sunny. It felt like we were leaving too early, but I have to remember that this is a job for the guides and they have other work to get done as well as likely have more bears to deal with when it got dark.
And about an hour after dark the boats starting returning with the remaining three bear hunters. It was a tough day for them. The only bears seen were a sow and three cubs by South Dakota guy. It was supposed to be his last day in camp, but I could see the noodling of alternate plans. The two guys from Arizona still have a day to hunt.
Two of the remaining hunters have passed up a bunch of bears - hunting for the "right" animal prolongs the hunt which can be fun. I did that last year when I was hunting mule deer. But that does come with some risk as animals can do inexplicable things. A bear has 24 hours to be in the woods. I feel bad for the one Arizona guy as he hasn't seen squat while many of us have seen bunches of bears. Four years ago it was the fourth day of hunting before I saw my first bear, so I've been there. And as luck is defined as "success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions" - the last day has nearly as good a chance as the first. Arizona guy did say (semi-humorously) that his standards for this trip have started to go down.
And as I've said before, the hunt is the experience. Frustration can be part of that.
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