1000 Islands, New York
Monday, September 10
Dan writes:
It is 4am. I have just gotten out of bed and am heading outside to make the coffee. I shine the flashlight at the screen house and, Oh My Gosh there is a skunk inside, tipping over the trash can. Cautiously I exit the tent, I let the skunk know I’m there, and I politely ask him to leave. He finds his way under the screen house wall and disappears into the darkness.
Fifteen minutes later, it’s still quite dark out and I’m sitting in the screen house sipping my coffee. All of a sudden Cooper bolts from the tent and begins a spitting, snarling wrestling match with a wild animal right there in the middle of our campsite. Round and round they go until eventually it breaks up and they stand three feet apart, staring at each other. It’s a skunk, of course. Both animals seem to appreciate me stepping in at this point to break it up, and as they head off to their respective corners I think maybe the skunk has not had a chance to do it’s thing. Wrong. Even though there is a light breeze blowing through camp this morning, there is a definite skunk smell also.
Right now Cooper is locked outside in the screen house, while I have come back into the tent to write my journal and finish my coffee. Oh yeah, Annie did get out of bed during the commotion, but has since returned. Her only words so far: “Don’t forget… the dog is going with you in the boat today.”
Fishing report:
I met Craig, my practice partner, at 6am and we trailered down to Chaumont Bay. This as you may recall from reading about our last trip here in July, is where I would like to fish if the weather cooperates and allows us to come this far. The weather did not cooperate today, as the wind must have been blowing 20+ mph, kicking up five-footers out there in the open water. I made two drifts over my favorite area, caught one good fish and had another follow, but I couldn’t take it any longer out there. I was having to stand down in the bottom of the boat to fish, and the waves were crashing over the stern and into the boat.
Because of the rough seas all of the other places we would like to have fished around Chaumont were inaccessible. We spent about four hours up the Chaumont River instead. Craig caught a couple of three pound’ers on a Pop-R, and I caught a few smaller ones on a worm. A major front passed through during this time, and after the rain ended the temperature dropped considerably.
Around 1:30 we quit this area and trailered back up to Clayton. Here we put in again and fished the main river (the St. Lawrence Seaway) until about 6pm, but neither one of us had another bite all day. After the front we now had blue skies, and I think the fish have just shut off for the afternoon.
Annie writes:
We started the day off with the excitement of the skunk fight. Later, Mary Ann, her daughter Jessie, and I spent the day in Canada. We had a good time and went to the Hershey chocolate factory. Well worth the trip.
Dan came in around 6pm and we ate a big spaghetti dinner and had a nice campfire. It is very quiet in the campground since we are the only fisherman staying here. That makes it nice, knowing that when Dan comes in we get to spend time alone with each other.