After another great breakfast, Dave took Kim, Brady, Kathy, Brian and I out in the big boat. Whitney was leaving, so it was a slow start in the boat - too slow. But waiting is part of life. Even if it is a painful part when there are fish to catch...
Once underway, we went upriver to fish. We saw more eagles on the way up river; we saw them many times through the day. The picture below isn't too good, but this bald eagle has been sitting there almost every morning I've been past this spot.
We went way upriver and started to fish. I think Dave originally intended most of us to jig for walleye with only a few casters, but pike seemed to be what everyone was after - especially me. Actually Kathy really wanted a big pike as well as so far she hadn't caught anything too sizable yet.
We fished around several spots and even went above Eagles Nest. I started in my favorite location in the bow of the boat. But with Kathy and Brian up there it wasn't working very well. I ended up going to the roof. I lose a few yards of fishing right by the boat (where pike often hit) when on the roof, but I could cast farther and I could pretty much fish in any direction - so it was probably a net positive.
Fishing wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. There were enough catches to keep everything interesting, but not much more than that.
But the quality of fish was really good. Many pike were brought in the boat in the 30 to 35 inch range. Brady even had a really huge monster on at one point; it ended up breaking his line. Dave said the way it was acting was like a heavy 40+ incher. Even if that wasn't the case, it was a big fish.
We also hit a few pockets of smallmouth bass. I brought in one that was almost 17 inches and again football fat.
We met the other boat of Derrick, Gil, George and James for lunch at the shelter. It was a good time and the food was really good again. Dave did battered fish this time which was probably the best fish I've had during the week.
After lunch we went out again for more pike fishing. Temperatures had warmed considerably through the day and the wind, which was strong all day, became more gusty. But that didn't hurt the fishing as I think the afternoon was actually a bit better than earlier in the day. Again, the boat brought in a consistent level of fish with several above 30 inches. I even brought in my first walleye of the week on a fairly large spoon. At one point I laughed when Kathy declined to take a picture with a pike she caught, "It is only a 30 inch fish." This from someone who only a few hours earlier was itching to bring in anything that big.
I still have one day to go, but the afternoon was probably the best fishing to that point.
All good things must come to an end and we headed back downriver to the lodge. I'm looking forward to one more day of fishing, but am getting ready to go home. I test-fit my bear in my coolers, which was a good thing since the hide didn't fit as well as I had hoped. Vance helped make it fit though.
Dinner was taking on a different mood. People were getting ready to pack up and head out; there would only be a few of us left the following day.
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