At about 5:30 a.m. this morning there was a thunderstorm in St. Cloud. The room in which I was sleeping lit up with flashes of lightning followed quickly by the loud sound of thunder. Clearly the storm was close by.
By 8:00 a.m., the sun was out, it was already 78 degrees, air was humid with just a slight breeze. The only indication of the earlier storm were a few puddles of water here and there.
Joe and I cleaned up any minor mess we may have made at Grandma Coyle's house, I replaced some light bulbs where necessary and then it was time to go out for breakfast. I had contacted Joe's Aunt Sandy and her son Jackson to see if they wanted to join us, and as it turned out, they did.
We all met at the Perkin's right near Grandma Coyle's house off Hwy. 15 and had a nice time talking and eating breakfast. Then at noon it was time for me to take Joe down to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.
Getting there is easy enough, take Hwy. 15 south out of St. Cloud, then take Interstate 94 toward Minneapolis, and then 494 around the west and south sides of the Twin Cities to the airport. It took us an hour and a half to make the trip.
I pulled up to the departure area for Sun County Airlines where Joe and I said our goodbyes. It is sure hard leaving our oasis on Leech Lake, but it's also hard taking people to the airport so they can leave.
Like all good major airports it was easy to exit the airport and get back onto 494. I took it back to 35W where I then headed north through downtown Minneapolis and into St. Paul. I continued on 35W until it merged with 35E to simply form Hwy. 35. From there it was north to Moose Lake where I cut over and got onto 73 which I took north to Floodwood and Hwy. 2.
Of course Hwy. 2 took me from Floodwood to Grand Rapids to Deer River (where I stopped at Fred's Baits to buy a scoop of fatheads) to Ball Club and Bena, and eventually to Sucker Bay Road and home. The entire trip from St. Cloud to the airport and then back to Leech Lake took me 7 hours.
Once home I unpacked the truck, started some laundry, made a couple of phone calls and then went fishing.
The wind was out of the SSW at 8-15 mph, breezy, but not enough to keep me off the lake. There were some high wispy clouds, but mostly blue sky and sunshine, the temperature was 80 degrees and it felt humid and muggy.
I started fishing off Second Duck Point in 10 feet of water and let the wind push me northward toward our house. I was using a 1/8 ounce Bass Pro Shops XPS walleye jig in a green/black color tipped with a fathead minnow. I jigged from 7:20 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. -- 14 minutes after sunset -- and only caught a few small perch. I then put on the navigation lights and started trolling with a Minnow Rap.
I made one long pass from Newman's cabin south into the middle of Duck Bay and then back to the cabin but didn't catch a thing. I came ashore a little after 10:00 p.m. I had a late dinner, cleaned up and then read the paper, which I'd picked up in St. Cloud.
I spoke to Joe on the phone and it was weird thinking that he was already at our house in San Jose. Just this morning I was having breakfast with him in St. Cloud, now he's in San Jose and I'm at Leech Lake. No surprise, both of us wished the trip was just starting rather than having just ended.
As I got ready for bed I made a mental list of all of the things I need to do before I leave on Friday morning. There's so much cleaning up to do, plus closing all the buildings, storing the ATV and truck, securing the boat, etc. I'll be very busy the next two days that's for sure. But if possible, I'm going to try to get out and do as much fishing as I can fit in.
Good night from Leech Lake.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
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