July 6, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

Kathleen is planning to drive Ashley down to St. Cloud on Thursday morning so this morning I drove into Cass Lake to pick up some supplies since I'll be at the lake alone without transportation for a couple of days.

The temperature at 10:00 a.m. was 73 degrees on its way to a high of 80 degrees. The was almost calm, at maybe 5 mph out of the NNW, so the lake was like glass. The clouds were the mixed -- some big, white and billowy, while others were very high and wispy.

When I got home, at just after 11:30 a.m., Kathleen and Ashley were just going out to the dock. I poured a cup of coffee for myself and joined them.

Since the water was still fairly calm at 1:30 p.m., and since it was a hot and humid 81 degrees, we decided to go tubing on the Hot Dog. Ashley asked if the neighbor boy Blake, who like Ashley is sixteen years old, could go with us. It was fine with us so Blake joined Ashley riding the tube in the 78 degree waters of Leech Lake.

I pulled them all over Sucker Bay -- from in front of our house into Duck Bay past Second Duck Point then north toward the resorts and finally back to our place. I probably did three or four loops during the 45 minutes we were out tubing. We had to come ashore because Blake and his family had plans to drive into Cass Lake for the farmer's market and craft fair.

Kathleen, Ashley and I, however, were not done with our time on the water and decided to go fishing. But first we made sandwiches, got some cold drinks and other snacks so we could spend as much time on the water as we wanted.

I got the leeches and fatheads into the boat and off we went. Fish started down in Bass Bay because Kathleen wanted to some fishing for "sunnies" (sunfish), but we didn't have any success. We then moved to the Birches, where we each caught some rock bass. Finally, we moved in front of our properties and drifted past Second Duck Point, but again all we could catch were some rock bass.

With our fill of fishing, Kathleen and Ashley wanted to go for a boat ride. Since the water was still fairly calm we could go quite a ways. We went past Ottertail Point and into Portage Bay and then south out onto the big part of the lake. From there we motored west toward Goose Island. We went around the island and headed north toward Big Hardwood Point and into the heart of Sucker Bay. And finally we motored home.

Just before sunset Ashley and Blake went for an ATV ride while Kathleen relaxed and meditated on the end of the dock. After a light dinner we all went over to the game room where we played ping pong and listened to oldies on the jukebox.

All in all a fun-filled day at Leech Lake.