I once again slept in far later than I normally do; I was wondering how long it will take to get back on my normal schedule. But I have several days (and over a thousand miles) until I have to start thinking about that.
After an egg bake breakfast, Derrick took Ron and I in one boat while Max took Justin, John and Mike in a separate boat. We headed above the rapids and started by jigging which was not working very well. So for most of the day, our boat set up with Ron bottom bouncing and me casting for pike (or whatever). The weather was cool and cloudy with just a couple sprinkles. Not having the sun out was almost kind of nice since I'm a little bit sun and wind burned.
Ron pulled in quite a few walleye and I make good work against the pike. Around mid-morning I finally get a pike on the line that did not thrash around like a pissed-off teenager and I knew it was a good one. It gets near the boat before dragging line deep beneath the boat. After a bit of work, the fish is tired and we get a big fat 36-inch pike in the boat. I'll take that any day. I'm equally happy after a successful release back into the Winnipeg River.
We continue fishing for the rest of the morning. As we are about to head to our lunch spot we see a bald eagle fly low over our boat. Derrick takes one of our small perch and thumps it on the head and throws it into the air. The eagle, which is now in a fir tree looking over the bay, sees this and flies down, taking it off the water just a few yards from the boat. It is very dramatic (I think Ron has a better picture than this which I hope to steal a copy of).
We stop and fish a bit more before heading to one of the beach areas to eat. I walked out to the rocky point to look for wolf tracks. They are hard to find after the previous day's rain, but I do find two sets of them, the second set having smaller tracks of very young wolves.
Lunch is once again shore fish and potatoes. It is easy to eat too much. Carter and John stop by for a few minutes before we head out for some more fishing. Temperatures have turned warm from the mornings gloom and I finished the day in shorts and a T-shirt again.
The afternoon's fishing isn't quite as good for our boat, but we still hook into a decent number of fish. At one point I don't get my line out of the way of the boat in time on a turn and it gets wrapped up in the trolling motor - I felt like quite the waterhead.
As the afternoon wore on, it was time to head in. The wind had picked up creating waves in the open areas. At a point near the rapids, we see two bald eagles fighting mid-air. The go at each other before tumbling in a triple barrel-roll, only to break away and fly off right near the water. I'm not sure which was cooler, the eagle taking the perch right before lunch or the eagles fighting while headed back to camp?
As it got darker back at camp, the first boat came in early which was a good sign. Both Amanda and Matt had shot nice bears off their stands. It wasn't too long before the other boat came in with Mark and Tyler ... and two more bears.
So 10 hunters, 10 bears with one day to spare. Incredible.
No comments:
Post a Comment