Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Snow Bay + Fat Lake- August 2023
by naturboy12

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/19/2023
Entry & Exit Point: Little Indian Sioux River (north) (EP 14)
Number of Days: 7
Group Size: 2
Day 2 of 7
Sunday, August 20, 2023

The winds of change continued to blow, picking up again after midnight and staying a steady 10mph or so the rest of the night and throughout the day while temperatures dropped. Rain was forecast for the afternoon and with temps supposed to be only in the middle 60's, we wanted to have a productive morning, so we fished early and again mid morning until late lunch. With the steady wind, trolling was the best way to catch fish and we caught a good combination of pike, bass and walleye once again, but today's fish were bigger and a few ended up as dinner. When we pulled the canoe up for lunch, I found a lamprey in the bottom of the boat that must have been attached to one of the pike we caught. Crazy looking thing!

We tried our best to block the wind with a tarp behind the fire pit, but when you're elevated and facing directly into the wind, it's a bit challenging. Instead of fighting that, we moved deeper into camp and decided to spend the afternoon on land. I bushwacked to a small lake/pond SSE of the campsite and took a few photos of the amazing beaver engineering. Always fun to check out places few people ever take the time to find.
Thankfully the rain in the forecast did not happen that afternoon other than a few stray drops, so we went back out fishing before dinner, caught a few more pike and lost one very nice walleye. After dinner we had another fire, cooked up the fish and added it to our first ever Mountain House Meal packet (chicken fried rice- solid choice!) and watched the lake once again lay down flat by dark. Tomorrow we would be on the move, but our two days on Loon were everything we hoped they would be!