Saturday - Duncan Bay Narrows
Duncan Bay Narrows Sunrise
After a fairly decent night of sleeping I awoke at 7am. Ray was already up and was busy taking pictures of another gourgous Isle Royale sunrise. Paul and Dad were still sleeping. A boat passed by the narrows heading out to do some divng. I grabbed a fishing pole and headed to the shoreline at the narrows to try my luck. I casted a dozen times with no takers. I spotted a nice little swirling eddy and made a long cast to it. I let my lure, a large perch colored Original Rapala, sit for at least a minute before reeling it in. After 5 or 6 cranks on the reel I detected a strike, set the hook, and then proceeded to reel in a nice 25 inch Lake Trout. Bam!!! $30.00 for first fish! Not a bad start to the morning! I just had to wake up Paul and Dad to show them the fish, and of course to rub it in. I told them you have got to get up pretty early if they want to out fish me! Of course Paul accused me of eltro-shocking the fish or said I must have dived in the get it with my bare hands! I casted a few more times with no luck.
Me with a nice early morning lake trout!
Paul casting at the narrows while a diver boat heads out to sea.
I then headed to the boat to start it up and check on the GPS problems. To my surprise the GPS was working fine. I idled out into deeper water, grabbed the filet knife and fileted my catch. I bring a nice electric filet knife when I have the boat. It's corded but I have a small inverter that I plug it in to. Lake trout for dinner tonight! I dumped the remains in the deeper water and then headed back to the dock.
I prepared breakfast, which consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice. I think it was the best tasting breakfast i’ve had since our last trip here. I think every thing tastes better on Isle Royale. We were going to go trolling for lake trout after breakfast, so we spooled up the trolling rods with lead core line.
I then headed to the dock to write in my journal. While sitting on the end of the dock, I looked down and spotted an Energizer 9V battery lying on the bottom next to the dock. Leave it the batteryman to spot that!
The weather was perfect! Bluebird skies and very little wind, and temps around 65 degrees. We grabbed our fishing gear, some drinks and snacks, and loaded up the boat to head out for some lake trout fishing. Our destination would be Locke Point, but we put out our lines once we got past the narrows and towards the first point to the northeast. We didn't even have the lines out for more than 10 minutes when we had our first fish on! Ray pulled in a nice 6 pound lake trout.
We trolled this spot where the depths went to 22 feet then dropped down to 100 feet. In 6 passes, we caught 4 more lake trout, with Ray reeling in the biggest fish, an 8lb 14oz 31 incher. All the fish were caught on a yellow-green colored spoon. All four of us got a chance to reel one in! We trolled with 4 lines out, 2 lined with lead core and 2 lined with 20lb monofilament. All fish were caught on the lead core line. I guess we'll have to tie up some more lead core! It definetly enables the lure to get down deeper.
After a couple more passes on this spot with no takers, we headed over to Locke Point. Paul caught one more fish here. We decided to head back to the shelter for lunch and of course we had to make one more pass on the hump near what we dubbed Little Locke Point. We caught one more lake trout there, and this fish had a couple followers with him. I am amazed how clear the water is. I could see the fish down a good 15 feet!
Ray with his first chunky lake trout!
Paul reels in a nice one off the Little Locke Pointe reef.
Dad gets in on the action!
Paul with another chunky lake trout!
We only keep 2 for the frying pan and released the bigger fish.
We decided head in for lunch and made it back to camp by 2pm. After a group photo with our catch I jumped back into the Stratos and headed out to deeper water, fileted the fish, dumped the remains, and then idled back to the dock. I immediately fried some up and it was pretty tasty! Even Dad liked it, and he’s not a big fish eater.
After lunch we packed up some snacks and the camera gear and decided to head out to Lookout Louise. It was smooth sailing around Blake Point. We arrived at the Hidden Lake dock where Ray decided he would stay back for some photo time, and Paul, Dad and I headed up the one mile trail to Lookout Louise. At the top, we had a snack, took a few pictures and enjoyed the cool breeze and scenic view. Then it was back to the dock. The mosquitos were pretty intense around the Hidden Lake area and all the way to the dock, so we untied rather quickly and idled out of the area. Ahh the benefits of having a boat!We needed to make an ice run so we shot over to the seaplane dock and hiked the short trail to Rock Harbor store. We picked up some sunscreen, more fish batter, and a dozen eggs as well. We headed back to the boat, untied, and headed back to the shelter at Duncan Bay Narrows. This time around Blake Point we had 2-3 foot waves, but the boat handled well. We made it back by 7pm. I prepared chicken breast and vegetables and fresh strawberries for dinner, store bought not from the island. After dinner, Paul and I prepared our backpacks for our trip to Windigo in the morning. After that, Dad and I started a fire while Paul and Ray went exploring around the area with camera in hand. We were in bed by 11pm.
Dad relaxes after a long day!
A great way to end the day!
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