Today's forecast called for a small chance of rain, and LOTS of fish! We started the day with breakfast of oatmeal, granola, cocoa, and coffee. As expected, "Lazer" Steve was already up and fishing from various spots around our island. Once our meal was done and our morning "routines" completed, we planned our strategy for the day. Each canoe would have a variety of bait, with a couple of lines in the water per person. We thought the best looking spot for fish was the "structure" that existed on the south end of the lake not far from where we portaged the night before. We hoped we'd catch some bass this way, saving the deeper walleye fishing for another time.
We headed out for the various shorelines, each canoe equipped with walkie-talkies. We had a general agreement that we'd bet on first fish, biggest fish, most fish each day. However, we failed miserably to keep track of these things. Even now we were so excited to fish that we forgot to keep track of who caught the first fish. When someone finally squawked "Fish On!" via the walkie-talkie, someone else replied that they caught one 10 minutes ago. Gary replied that he'd caught something about, oh, 12 minutes ago. Bah! Already there were disputes. Over the next 3 days we did acknowledge those individuals who were keeping us fed (mainly Lazer), but he didn't get (or want) a dime. Just the act of fishing with the boys was his reward (says me!).
Gary and I did catch some small northerns at the start, but other than that we weren't having much luck. Being the experienced fisherman that I was (that's a joke BTW), my second line dragging behind the canoe became entangled in Gary's nice new net, and I spent the next 1/2 hour trying to remove the double treble hooks from the net, finally giving up and cutting it out of the net. (Sorry Gary, I owe you a net.) Thereafter I gave up on fishing with a second line, not trusting myself. I kept one line primed for surface lure fishing, and one line primed for live bait bobber fishing, but never both in the water.
We moved around alot that morning and early afternoon with very little luck. We tried various surface and subsurface lures, but nothing significant was biting except northerns. Conversations from the two other canoes could be heard over the water surface. From a distance I watched Chuck, the experienced bass fisherman, cast his lure a mile with a small flick of his wrist, never having to pause if he was talking. It was pretty cool watching his lure and line fly a country mile as it caught the sunlight, but for all his skill, his luck was no better than the rest of us.
We headed back to the campsite for some lunch - meats, cheeses, tortillas, and other miscellaneous snacks that we had. Undaunted, the boys wanted to fish the next lake over, Pietro Lake, which was reported to be an excellent bass lake. However, it would require a portage, which wouldn't be too bad because it could be done with one trip - one guy with the canoe, the other with fishing gear. I begged out, opting to continue fishing on this lake, as did Joe.
When the guys headed out, Joe and I decided to explore and fish the north end of the lake. I was still curious to investigate the two or three campsites that existed there. We paddled towards a group of islands near the northeastern shoreline where fishing was supposed to be good, and one which was reported to contain a primo campsite. Not only didn't we catch anything, we circled the three small islands and never did spot a campsite. (Right then I was thankful that Steve had won our campsite debate the day before!) We paddled across to the far shore and stopped at another campsite that was in a burn area. As a matter of fact, most of the western shoreline of Gull Lake was burned out. We continued paddling around most of the rest of the lake, fishing in spots. The walkie-talkie finally squawked as the other two canoes reported their progress to each other on the adjacent lake - nothing, not a bite. However, we were impressed with the range of the walkie-talkies!
We all eventually meandered back to camp, having caught a couple of bass and just enough northerns to round out a decent fish fry for the bandits, supplemented by garlic mashed potatoes. Gary took station on the shore and cleaned the fish for us, and the rest of us filled in with various tasks of battering, frying, and eating fish. With nighttime setting in, we cleaned up camp, changed into some warmer clothes, and set about making a fire in the decent sized fire ring.
I would be lying if I said that we broke into the the booze around this time, since we had been nipping all afternoon and evening. As for the beer, none of us were allowed to touch it until Joe made a presentation to the Bandits. Joe had 5 different kinds of Surly beers (in 16 oz cans, for those that aren't familiar with Surly packaging), one for each of us Bandits: Furious, Overrated, Bender, Cynic, and Bitter. Joe ceremoniously distributed a can of the 5 different styles to each Bandit with a short quip as to how each beer was custom made to fit the person. To be honest, I don't remember each designation, especially my own because my mind was too focused on taking that first luscious sip! However, after now knowing how the evening turned out for me, Bender would have been apropos...
Being that this was 3 weeks shy of the summer solstice, and we were located in far northern Minnesota, the sun set after 9 pm, with a long twilight to boot. At one point in our evening revelry, one of us looked up and noticed the unreal pink-orange sky that spread across the entire length of the western horizon. Wow. Mid-banter, the Bandits went quiet and began spreading out along the shoreline to take in the amazing sunset sky. It lasted for a good while until the colors started to dim, at which point we filtered back to the fire. It was a truly memorable sunset!
As the evening continued, we began a lengthy and prolonged discussion about our favorite TV shows growing up in the 60's. Being that Chuck was a bit older than the rest of us, we (OK, I) continued to press him for a favorite, wondering if I would even recognize it, being about 10 years his junior. I had already spilled the beans on my fav: I Dream of Jeannie. For those of you too young to remember, just do a Google image search, and you'll understand the impact this show had on a prepubescent boy! With more than my share of snorts on the SIGGs, I really played up my infatuation with this show for the Bandits (rub the genie bottle and all that...). We talked about several other shows from the early to mid 60's, but still Chuck was playing it cool. Was he embarrassed? Or maybe he was just trying to remember what life was like before 20? Whatever the reason, he finally broke down and let out a single word: Paladin. Whaaa......? Well, that shut us young whipper-snappers up, since we had no idea what he was talking about. The elder Bandits sort of remembered the gunfighter TV show from the late 50's ("Have Gun Will Travel") where Paladin was the main character. But I'm sorry, Richard Boone can't hold a candle to Barbara Eden.
Overall, it had been a great "Bandit" day, and we had two more days at this site without having to pack up camp. Sweeeeeeeeeetness.