Catching more than a northern

Continued from Part 2 (click here)

We woke up early.

It was 6 a.m. and the alarm on Nate's phone went off. Since we were on eastern time, that meant it felt like 5 a.m.

He hit snooze, and I rolled over in my twin-sized bed and went back to sleep beneath the warmth of the green, fleece-lined sleeping bag.

The alarm went off again. Snooze. Again. Snooze.

It was finally 6:30 a.m. and we knew we needed to get out there and catch some walleye with the morning bite or we might not eat that day. We had to at least have enough fish to get us through the day.

So we bundled up for the chilly Canadian morning, grabbed a coffee cake muffin, loaded up our gear in the boat and headed out to the same cove that we had success with on the first day.

It was chilly as the sun made its way over the trees, but it sure was beautiful. I yawned while I watched my line bob in the wake.

A bite!

I started to reel in but forget to set my line, so the fish got away with my worm. I grabbed a new earthworm to put on my hook while Nate reeled in his first fish. He got the second walleye, and I got the third.

Then Nate yanked his pole up to set the line and started to reel in a fish that certainly didn't want to be caught. It pulled and tugged while he reeled, and it finally rolled on its side to use its razor-sharp teeth to cut the line and steal Nate's lure --- a northern.

"Man! That northern stole my whole lure!"

"Crud," I said, getting cut off when I felt a bite on my line.

I started reeling a fighting fish, and Nate got the net ready. As he swooped it down and grab the fish from the below the surface, we realized it wasn't a walleye but a northern.

And this northern not only had my lure attached to its lip, but it also had a turquoise leadhead in its mouth --- Nate's lure.

"I caught your lure!"

We got the lures out of the northern's mouth, threw it back and continued to laugh. What were the odds that I would catch the exact fish that stole Nate's lure literally seconds after he lost it? We knew that was going to be quite the story for our fishing trip.

Nate caught one more walleye, and we knew we had enough food for the day even if we didn't catch anything else later, so we headed back to the cabin for breakfast.

Coffee brewed in the percolator, and I got the eggs and bacon out of the refrigerator.

When I went to crack an egg into the hot cast iron skillet, it cracked but didn't break. I hit it again, still seemed a little too solid for a normal egg.

"The eggs are frozen..." I said to Nate.

"Uh oh."

We had packed the eggs in the cooler the day before, and they must have gotten a little too cold sitting in ice and then got even colder in the frigid propane refrigerator.

I held them over the hot pan one by one, trying to warm them in my hands and defrost them. Slowly, they came back and cracked into the sizzling skillet.

It took a little longer than anticipated, but we had breakfast.

"It's Sunday, isn't it?" Nate asked.

"It is Sunday! We should do some kind of devotional."

I remembered that I had some Beth Moore books downloaded on my phone, so I went to turn it on and access one. We read some Scripture and read a chapter.

It was only 9 a.m., and we both looked at each other with tired eyes.

"I think I need a nap," one of us said, but we were both thinking it.

Later that afternoon, we attempted to shower with our hanging shower bag. The sun had warmed the water to a tepid temperature, but we still wanted to try it.

Left looking for a place to hang the shower bag that was out of the grass so it wasn't mosquito-ridden and in the sun so it was warmer, Nate attempted to prop two ladders up on the dock. However, the wind blew and toppled them.

He grabbed an ax inside to hack a branch off of a tree near the shoreline that would work as a second-best option. The moment he grabbed the ax, though, the head of it shook and slid right off.

I was picking up a few things inside and I saw him working on the shower situation outside when he came in with a huge smile on his face.

"I used a wooden clothespin to rehang the ax."

"Good job McGyvering it."

"Your dad would be so proud. I think he's the only person that would appreciate it."

We did shower, and although it was a bit chilly in the late afternoon, it felt good to be clean for the evening.

All in all, it was a pretty relaxing Sunday.

Plus, here are Sunday's dishes:

Walleye hot dip
4 walleye filets
4 ounces cream cheese
2 ounces cheddar cheese
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 Tbsp. butter
Topping: 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1 Tbsp. paprika
Sliced artisan bread

Melt butter in a cast iron pan and saute onions until translucent. Add walleye and cook through, breaking up into pieces.

Melt cream cheese into onion and fish mixture, then melt cheddar. Mix in salsa.

Top with bread crumbs and paprika. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly.

Remove from oven and dip bread in to eat. Make sure to cool slightly before serving!

Fish tacos
4 walleye filets
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. jerk seasoning
1 egg
Tortilla shells
Toppings: Cilantro, avocado, sour cream, chopped lettuce

Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet. Mix bread crumbs and jerk seasoning. Beat egg in a bowl. Dip filets in egg wash and then in bread crumb mixture.

Fry fish until crispy and done all the way through.

Layer on tortilla with desired toppings.

I also served the fish tacos with a mixture of white rice, chopped red bell peppers and corn, similar to the base of the fish taco bowl. We had a limited amount of food, so I made everything work more than once!

(Read the next post)