IRNP JOURNAL - Day 4 07/06/2009

Sunday 07-06-09 Day 4

I awoke at 6:45am. It was not the best night of sleeping for sure! I let Paul sleep into until 8am. I checked out the area with camcorder in hand hoping to see a moose near Washington Creek. I didn't encounter one but a group of guys in another shelter told me, as I walked past their shelter, that they had the luck of having a moose come down into the river right infront of their shelter and hang around for a half hour. Don't know how I missed that. 

I returned to the shelter to wake up Paul and to do the dishes from the previous night's dinner. It was oatmeal and granola bars for breakfast. After breakfast we packed up our gear and walked down to the dock to wait for the Voyager III. We had a little time to kill so we went back to the visitor center and took a few more photos, then went to the store for a soda. As we were walking down the hill to the dock we could hear a plane coming into the harbor. I hustled down to the dock to get a photo and some video of it taking off. It wasn't at the dock for more than a couple of minutes, dropping off a couple of people and there gear.

The Voyager arrived on time, dropping off a good sized group of people. They all gathered around Ranger Val for the customary LNT speech. We then loaded our gear onto the Voyager and got on. We ended up getting the same seats we had yesterday. There were around a dozen other rider with us this time.

We left at 11am sharp headed for McCargoe Cove. The ride around the north side was smooth and the weather was a chilly mid 50's with grey clouds but no rain. The north side of island is alot steeper along the shoreline and I could definetly see it beeing tough for a kayak or canoe to land anywhere in rough water.I made up for my lack of sleep outside at the back of the boat, where I dozed off and on for a couple of hours. The ride to McCargoe Cove was about 3 hours long.

At the mouth of McCargoe Cove I went to the front of the boat to take a few pictures. As we went by Birch Island, Ray and Dad were justing hoping into the boat at the dock to come pick us up. We arrived at McCargoe Cove and off loaded our gear. There was a number of riders that got off as well and a few that got on. Ray and Dad pulled up to the dock a few minutes after the Voyager pulled away.

This is a screenshot from a video posted on Youtube. If you look in the picture above this one the guy who filmed the video is standing just above the word Voyager III. LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCCz9-mbHXk

We idled back to the shelter on Birch Island for some lunch . Paul and I were introduced to our neighbor, Ranger Dan, and we chatted for a few. He had just got back from fishing. Ray and Dad had fished for a while earlier in the day and managed only 3 or 4 smaller pike. We all ate a quick turkey and cheese sandwich and loaded up the boat with camera gear, snacks, and cold beer and head out to try and catch us a monster northern pike. Our goal every year is to catch a 40inch fish and last year was the only year we got one bigger then 40". I caught a 43" 22lb pike in Chippewa Harbor.

I tied on a pink fluke and tossed it into the reeds and stumps. The pike would ambush my bait and I managed to land two out of a half dozen or so, as they were tough to hook up with. Paul and Dad caught one on a rapala and then Ray hooked up with a giant. He fought it for several minutes before landing it. It was 39 inches and 17 lbs. Just shy of our goal but a nice fish no less. We snapped several photos and then released the giant to fight another day. It started to rain a bit so we decided to head back to the shelter for cover. While we idled back, we spotted some absolute giant pike and we would definitely be back to try and catch them once the rain let up.

Ray's 39inch 17lb Northern Pike.


Of course as soon as we got back to Birch Island it stopped raining. Ray, Paul, and Dad headed back out, while I stayed behind. They got back after sunset and managed to catch a good number of fish, nothing too big though. I made a late dinner of filet mignon and also cooked up the remaining chicken breast we had before it would go bad. We also played a game of euchre at the picnic table.

After our game of euchre, Ray was standing on the dock and heard a splash next to the dock. He said he looked down and saw a huge 40inch pike devour a smaller 16 inch pike. He had it sideways in his mouth and just slowly swam out of sight. I guess the pike were moving up to feed because paul casted from the dock for the next hour or so and landed 2 pike, the biggest a 29 incher.  He caught them using a large rapala. He fished in the dark with his headlamp on! After a while we headed in and were all asleep by midnight. Paul ended up sleeping outside next to the dock.

Paul on the dock at Birch Island with a decent night time pike.