2019 Bear Hunt Day 5 - Fishing Upriver

After the late night, I was up later than usual.  Granted my previous night wasn't as late as the guides, but it was still late.  The group had all agreed to get going a little later so all was well.  Since I was still up and going early, I fished some from the dock without any success.

After breakfast, we split up to go fishing upriver.  Dave took Gil, James, George, Nate and I upriver in the big boat to fish.  It was a gorgeous morning with a bit of a breeze.  It took just under an hour to get to our first spot for the day.  George and I almost immediately hooked into a big pike double - with George bringing in a 33-incher and mine being 37 inches.  Dave took pictures of which I hope to get copies.

Then things slowed down again.  We tried a few places and caught some more fish.  A few were good sized and some were about right for eating.  But the action wasn't as fast as it often is.  Still, it was a good morning with good company.

For lunch, everyone in camp met up at a shelter for fish bake.  This was the shore that was littered with wolf tracks the previous year, but I didn't see any this year.

I did climb up to the top of the granite rocks where the view is amazing.  Even without the bear hunting this would be a trip worth doing.

We all talked about our fishing excursions - all the boats had decent mornings and a few oddballs were caught including a really huge black crappie.  Derrick brought some of his moose meat sausage which was phenomenally good.  This along with the stuffed jalapenos, which seem to exist only up here, were almost enough for lunch.
There was the usual menagerie of shore birds flying around as we were eating.  In addition to the shore birds, there was also a bald eagle.  It definitely wasn't a tame bird, but didn't seem too disturbed by us as long as we kept a respectful, measured distance.  It is pretty rare to be this up close to them.

After lunch we cleaned up and headed out for more fishing.  Dave had a fish bone from lunch stuck into his throat which seemed annoying at best - and probably worse.  He was a trooper and took us fishing until we all decided that it wasn't worth it with as uncomfortable as he obviously was.  So we headed back to where he could take care of the fish bone without resorting to the fishy needle-nose pliers used for removing hooks from pike (seriously).

Once back in camp it was a slow afternoon.  I cast from the docks for a while but nothing was happening.  Then I went into the lodge.  The last hunter in camp was out so we were waiting until he got back to eat.  He got back a little after dark, having seen a sow with three cubs.  This was entertaining, but not productive for putting a bear into the boat.
Dinner was ribs with (true) wild rice harvested from a nearby lake.  I was beginning to have difficulties remembering what day it was or how many were left.  This ... is a good problem to have.