July 23, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

"Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning."

For the second time in recent days I'm reminded of that old mariner's adage. I had trouble sleeping last night and for some reason awoke at 5:30 a.m. to the sound of a strong wind. I took a look outside, and the sky to the east was bright red. As I stood marveling at the sky a flash of lightening appeared over head and within seconds was followed with a loud clap of thunder. Take warning indeed.

The thunderstorm brought wind, rain, lightening and thunder. At 8:30 a.m. the sky was gray and overcast, the wind was variable -- 8-15 mph swinging from the north to the ENE -- and the temperature was a cool 60 degrees. The humidity, most likely because of the rain, was at 70%.

Today I had planned to apply waterproofing to the wood stairs that are on either side of the harbor, but if it's going to rain all day I'll have to wait.

The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the north-central part of Minnesota, including Leech Lake, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

I wasn't going to go fishing today, in part because I didn't have a drift sock and in part because it was supposed to storm, but at Kathleen's urging -- "go fishing whenever you can..." -- I hit the water at around 3:30 p.m. The wind was out of the east at 10-12 mph, and without a drift sock, it meant that the boat would be pushed rather quickly from our shoreline out into Sucker Bay. The further out into the bay I got, the stronger the wind and the faster the boat was propelled.

Given that scenario, I started relatively close to shore in 8 1/2 feet of water and let the wind move me out into deeper water. The wind also moved the boat slightly south as it moved out into the bay so I could start in front of the cabin and by the time I got out into the middle of the bay I had moved a south enough to where I was in front of the house.

As usual when drifting, I used a jig tipped with a leech. I caught a few rock bass, including some good sized ones, and a small perch but no walleye. On two occasions, I did feel that familiar "walleye tap" and when I checked my bait the leech had been bitten in half; meaning something with teeth, either a walleye or a pike, was checking out my lure. At 4:30 p.m. I went ashore to listen to A Prairie Home Companion, and later get dinner started.

The storm which had been predicted never showed up. Instead, the sky actually started to show a little blue. The sunset was of the type where the sun was a big orange ball, which looked amazing, but once it dropped below the horizon there was virtually no color of any sort which made for a rather unspectacular sunset.

I ate dinner, watched a movie, and talked with Kathleen and Joe on the phone. Tomorrow morning I'm driving to St. Cloud and will see Kathleen's mom and sister. Then on Monday morning I'll pick Joe up from where the shuttle from the Minneapolis airport will drop him off in St. Cloud. We'll spend Monday in St. Cloud visiting family before making our way up to Leech Lake on Tuesday.

Good night from Leech Lake.