Saturday, September 5, 2009
We both slept well. We woke up and made breakfast. As usual, I was in charge of the pancakes. After eating and cleaning up, we prepared to explore Emerald. We decided to try fishing it. The DNR website had basically said there were no fish in the lake. Last night, though, I had seen some minnows near shore, so we decided to try our luck.
What really amazed me about the lake was how clear it was. I could easily see the bottom in the middle of the lake, and it was over 20 feet deep! We trolled all along the shore until we reached the other campsite on the lake. We hadn’t received a single bite. We had also noticed that the lake had absolutely no weeds—the bottom and shore were just rocks. The lake seemed to be dead. The other party had left during the morning, so we landed and had a look around the camp. It was a nice campsite, but not really what I had imagined when I read the description of it.
Since we weren’t having any luck on Emerald, we took the portage back over to Hustler. We had good luck on bass here. We caught enough for dinner and then some. In the afternoon, we took the portage back to Emerald to have some lunch.
After lunch, we tried fishing Emerald once more. This time we trolled the western shore of the lake. There were absolutely no fish, and no sign of any fish, so we just basically enjoyed a nice paddle on a beautiful day. As we were heading back to camp, though, Dad had a fish bite. We laughed for a few seconds as he fought it, but it spit the hook in a short time. We will probably never know what kind of fish he actually had on.
We went back to camp, relaxed a bit, and then made dinner. Dad cleaned the fish, and I cooked them up. The hot chocolate really hit the spot!
Hot Chocolate on Emerald
I had been thinking and had been a little worried about making it out at a decent time on Monday. It had taken us about 8 hours to get in. However, I wanted to be able to get out at about noon on Monday. Because of this, I suggested that we go back to Oyster the next day. Dad wondered if I was suggesting this because I was worried about him. While that was partly true, my main motivation was being able to get home on Monday. We discussed it and decided to pack up the next morning and go to Oyster.
We packed up what we could that evening. Then I decided to have a little fun in the canoe. I went out a little ways and practiced my solo turning. It was fun seeing how low to the water I could get before swamping.
Practicing Canoeing Strokes
It was a beautiful last evening on Emerald. We took "baths" and swam around a bit. I had some fun with the goggles in the crystal clear water. The wind died down before sunset. We sat on the rocks and read while the light faded. Finally, we headed in, readying ourselves for the morrow.
Sunset on Emerald
