June 30, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

With no accidents during the night we were all able to get up comfortably and say goodbye to my parents; as we had planned to do yesterday. It was great having them visit and as always it was hard to say goodbye.

The weather this morning was beautiful. The temperature was already 74 degrees at 10:00 a.m., the sky was mostly sunny and the wind was light at 3-8 mph out of the WSW. As the morning progressed and evolved into early afternoon the clouds rolled in and the sky darkened. It looked as if it was going to storm, or at least rain. But as it turned out, no rain fell and by 2:30 p.m. the sky had cleared again leaving nothing but blue sky.

With Jayden and Melissa napping and Kathleen and Ashley doing yoga and Pilate's, I took the opportunity to go fishing. With no fatheads in my minnow bucket I tipped my jig with a jumbo leech. I spent more than an hour in spots from Second Duck Point to a spot in front of my house to in front of Malay's without so much as a bite. So I went ashore to get a little lunch.

Everyone was still busy or napping so I went out onto the water again. The water temperature was 75 degrees, the sun was bright and the wind had died down completely. With those conditions I figured my best chance to hook a fish was to go bass fishing. With a spinnerbait tied on, I set up on the edge of the reeds in front of Norm's cabin.

I fished for more than an hour, moving slowly all the way to Schiebe's cabin. I made a 100 casts or more and couldn't hook a largemouth, or even a northern pike. With high skies, no wind and hot temperatures I decided it wasn't a good time to fish so I again made my way to shore.

Ashley and I went up to Birch Ridge Resort to buy a scoop of fathead minnows and on the way I noticed that the check engine light was on. I just had the truck serviced less than 1,000 miles ago so I'm not sure what's up. I'll have to take the truck into Bemidji on Monday to ensure all is working smoothly before we head down to St. Cloud later in the week.

We got back from Birch Ridge just in time for me to listen to A Prairie Home Companion, something I really enjoy doing on Saturday evenings at the lake.

After the "News from Lake Wobegon" I went outside and joined Kathleen, Melissa, Jayden and Ashley on the dock. Actually, Melissa, Jayden and Ashley were on the Hot Dog in the water so I jumped in and joined them. With the water at 75 degrees, it was very pleasant being in the lake. The kids asked if I could pull the Hot Dog behind the boat, and I agreed.

We gathered some snacks and drinks and all climbed into the boat. The water was still dead calm so I motored out just a short distance from shore before we dropped the Hot Dog in the water. Melissa and Ashley climbed on the tube and off we went. We raced around Sucker Bay for 15 or 20 minutes before stopping in front of our house. Jayden wanted a turn to ride on the Hot Dog, so Ashley got off the tube and climbed back into the boat while Jayden joined his Mom on the Hot Dog.

I started to make a slow trip around the Bay but Jayden wanted to come back into the boat. At that point we all decided it was time to go back on shore and get dinner ready. I had made some BBQed pulled pork earlier and we added onion rings and a fruit salad to complete the dinner.

We were all tired so after cleaning up the dinner dishes and getting Jayden to bed I called it a night and went to bed myself. We'll try some fishing again tomorrow. Good night from Leech Lake.