2025 Bear Hunt Day 9 - Fantasy Camp Ends

With nearly the full week in the rear view mirror, things moved slowly in the morning.  There may have been a bit too much lollygagging.  But there were fish to catch!

Drew took Sam, Bill and me out for fishing after breakfast.  He put us on current near the Haliday stand.  There were a few good pockets of walleye for Bill and Sam, who were jigging.  I was casting and brought in a couple nice smallmouth bass.

I looked longingly at a small weedy bay which looked like it would be promising for pike.  The current and rocky channel gave too many snags to the jigs, so we all switched to bottom bouncers.  I had used these once on Lake Erie, and I was wondering if they used them up in this area as well.  Tactic is a little different between the lake and the river system, but still effective.  This made things much better for snags and I participated as well.  I was able to bring in one eater walleye.

It spit rain a bit through the morning and we had one significant squall for most of the way back.

Lunch was burgers back at the lodge.  Then it was out for a last round of fishing.

Both Bill and I wanted to cast for pike so Drew acquiesced.  We started out going primarily after big pike in the channel.  We caught fish, but the big ones were elusive.

We moved then into the bays to finish out the day.  Numbers were pretty good for pike, but nothing too large was brought in.  There was one casualty as a spinnerbait was destroyed by one of the pike I brought in.  The spinnerbait gave its all (and I'm due to get some new ones anyway).

The weather as the day ended had turned to a perfect early fall day.

The final dinner that night was really good pork ribs and local wild rice as I said goodbye to my fellow hunters and guides.  But only for a year...