Day 4

I woke up at 1030 or thereabouts and Dad and I and Micah too got headed to Ritchie at 1100. So, first Dad headed into the complete wrong bay. I told him, “Where are you going?” but he kept on. Then he had to agree that there was no portage, so he asked Dan, who was nearby on Gull Rock, where to go. From there he eventually found it.

So we took the portage, [we got the canoe,] and we deposited Micah on a rock on one bank, and we paddled. The thing is, the fish weren’t biting, at all. There wasn’t even a hint. Dad took us about halfway across the Ritchie, which is a respectably-sized lake, and finally we found a kind of nice weed bed. It gave us a hit at least. While we fished we heard across the lake a few canoeists. They got near us just as Dad caught a very nice pike. I asked how it was going and they said good; they asked how fishing was and I reported that after an hour and a half this was our first fish. There were six people in three canoes; they were doing the Mantario Trail ([Whiteshell-]Crowduck-Ritchie-One Lake-Two Lake-Three Lake-Mantario). So they went to the other end of Ritchie and portaged off. Dad stuck around to catch one more fish, and then we had an exhaustive row back to Micah’s rock and then (after just a little more fishing) the shore. We portaged back and ended up back at camp at 1600.

There was a brief break, and then we took Maria to East Gull. Maria is psyched about fishing. but, Dad caught the only fish there too, two bass. I caught a decent walleye, but that doesn’t really count.

There was dinner (onion rings involved today!), and then I did the dishes, ending my successful run of shirking. Oh! There was horseshoes before dinner. Dan and Tracy are 7 and 0, and I had a bee sting my lip when I tried to drink a pop with the bee on it. Anyways, then we did poker. And I was working it! I won some great stuff, but I can’t remember any of it now. I do remember that the play turned sour. There was a run where every single time I dealt, Dan won. Dan was the big winner, which makes him the object of all hate. After I got out and he played a little more he cashed in up $14-something. I won’t soon forget the hand where I had the nut flush and he had a full house.

We headed out to see the stars, but we’re in a bad moon cycle where it’s up higher and fuller each night, and we didn’t see anything. We didn’t even go out to the Point.

It’s been a day less than totally awesome – no fish to keep, bee sting, sunburn, poker loss – but they say, the best day fishing is better than the best day at (school), and I wouldn’t trade today for any day in Finneytown.

File under: family · Places: Crowduck


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