Delta Bear Hunt Day 5 - After Bears, Fish

I woke up to a stunning Manitoba morning.  The air was cool and crisp with no wind.  The river was like a mirror.  Pictures on days like this are like cheating.

I sent a few I'm-in-an-awesome-place texts to a couple friends who should do things like this but rarely do.  Over the years I've gotten a few of these back as well so it is all fair.

After breakfast, Max took Tyler and I out for fishing after dropping another dude off at Kendall on the way.  We fished mainly by casting through the morning.  Fishing was good, but not great.  We caught enough fish that it didn't feel slow, but they were all small.  Even if the fishing has remained a little slow, the scenery is wonderful; miles of gorgeous coastline with almost no people and what evidence there is of civilization is not obtrusive and tucked out of the way.  

Conversation through the morning was good, even if some additional filtering may have been appropriate at times.

Lunch was once again soup and sandwich.  

The hunters went out after bears while Carter took Mike, Justin and I out for more fishing.

We started out by bottom bouncing for walleye.  I guess this is slightly less painful than jigging, but it is still not the most engaging way to fish.  It was also not terribly productive.  We did catch some walleye, but only 2 (or was it 3?) were big enough to keep.  We also had a lot of snags with Bag Al's hooks proving to be a frustrating tool for the job.  I think Big Al has some quality control problems.

When we ran out of Big Al's substandard hooks, we switched to casting.  This was a good turn since the fishing in the later afternoon was much better.  We were able to hook into a consistent amount of pike with a few smallmouths thrown in.  Some of the smaller pike were hitting lures with a brutality not commensurate with their size.  Several times we said that we had finally hooked into something big, only to see another snot rocket get reeled into the boat.

I did manage to bring in one smalley which was somewhere in the impressive arena.

We fished right up until dark before heading back into camp.  The six people still hunting filtered in through the evening.  Shockingly, only one bear had been shot at by Tyler, but its hoped recovery was going to have to wait until the morning.  Most of the bears seen were either small or maybe-on-Friday in size.  

I got pathologically tired and was ready for bed about 5 minutes after another excellent dinner.  Bear camp brings some bad eating and sleeping habits.  I love it.