Bill's mission was to get his first pike on the fly and I wanted to play with smallmouth. Both missions were accomplished.
Wildlife abounded with coyote, otter, mink, fisher, bald eagle, canada geese, swan, loon, osprey, and various comical rodents were seen.
Packed and ready to head out to our camp on Crooked Lake. The paddle is about 2.25 miles.
Home sweet home for 5 days
The view from our campsite
A couple of camp visitors
Typical shoreline. Verrrry fishy!
A nice day on Crooked Lake
First pike of the trip
Bill working the fly in good weather and...wellll not so good weather
Portage to Mountain Lake
Bass in Mountain Lake are all catch and release. Here's a typical smallmouth.
Lush forest surrounds all the lakes.
Not all fish are catch and release. A few did make it to the skillet.
I borrowed Rik's solar shower. Damn thing works great!
These keep campsites free of nastiness.
Obligatory loon shot. They serenaded us throughout the trip.
The weather turned Friday and got progressively worse.
Fungi were all over in varios shapes and sizes.
Our original plan was to stay through until Sunday but a cold front from hell was going to hang around through the weekend. Fishing in 50 degree rain with 20 mph winds wasn't our idea of a stellar time so we packed up a day early for the paddle from hell back to the truck.
Once we changed and loaded up we stopped at Big Mama's in Watersmeet for their specialty. Ya think this tasted good to a couple of guys 5 days in the woods?
Aside from a little bit of weather and Bill's raingear failure the trip went off without a hitch. We planned well, had plenty to eat, and had a great time. Wonder where we'll go next time?????????
