The day didn’t start too early, though most of the guys are early risers. We took our cue from the White Otter and ended up having a nice breakfast of coffee, bacon, and eggs around 10am. We decided to head out for a morning fish but it wasn’t quite as productive. I managed to pull in a handful of fish along the shoreline not far from the cabin. It was a unique opportunity fishing under the watchful eye of a majestic bald eagle.

The morning was very still. The surface of the lake was mostly glassy. This might have led to some of the challenges we had. Normally, you want to fish with the “walleye chop” so there’s some light wind chop but we didn’t have that at all.

We returned to the cabin with a less than spectacular haul and sat around talking and catching up. The woods around the cabin are too thick for exploring so we spend our time on the deck at the picnic table or around the dock. After lunch we headed back out and had another good day of fishing.

We had quite an interesting and unique experience. Stepping out of the cabin in the morning, there was a large pileated woodpecker hopping around the ground and pecking away at the various logs and tree stumps in the area. It was interesting how he seemed so focused on feeding that our presence didn’t phase him. It was really quite fascinating to watch him knock large chunks of wood off a stump to get to the goodies inside.

I dubbed the woodpecker Chip. We watched Chip for about an hour before we headed out for the morning fishing trip. It was even more surprising to find him still poking around the cabin when we returned. It was also interesting that he was hopping around the ground almost like a sparrow would. Aside from Woody the chipmunk and Steve the squirrel, there wasn’t a lot of wildlife so watching Chip was a nice addition.

After a couple of trips out, Gary still wanted to see if he could improve his score and headed out for some shore fishing. We also ended the evening with a beautiful sunset.