August 11, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

It was a beautiful morning in the northwoods of Minnesota on the shores of Leech Lake. The temperature was 65 degrees at 8:30 a.m., the sky was sunny and blue with some high, hazy cloud cover and the wind was light at 8-10 mph out of the WSW. The temperature hit a high of 75 degrees, a bit cooler than the rest of the country is experiencing.

Joe is feeling better today, but is still not back to 100%. I spent the morning reading the news online, checking on the perch to make sure it was still in good health (it appears stronger than yesterday after I first caught it) and enjoying a couple of cups of coffee.

Duane Paulson stopped by at about 9:30 a.m. to see if Joe and I had started on our house-staining project; which we have not. I think it's the first time in a couple years Duane has stopped by to see me. Usually I stop and talk to him when I see him outside at his place. And speaking of the staining the house, the plan is to start the power-washing of the house on Monday, and if we're lucky, we'll be able to finish washing the house in one day. Then we'll let the house dry thoroughly all day on Tuesday and then we'll begin the staining process on Wednesday. That's the plan as of Saturday at any rate.

After lunch Joe and I went fishing. I noted that the water temperature had fallen to an even 76 degrees. With the wind blowing out of the south at 8-10 mph I set the boat out in front of Giza's cabin and let the wind push  us north on Sucker Bay. Joe was using a chartreuse green Northland Mimic Minnow Spin and I was using a Northland Gumball jig tipped with a 4-inch plastic worm.

When we were directly in front of our house Joe hooked into a good-sized perch, maybe an 11-inch jumbo. As he was lifting it into the boat it came off the hook and it fell back into the lake, which is too bad because it would have been the good second keeper for our fish-fry dinner.

For the rest of the afternoon we caught several more perch, but none big enough to keep. I also hooked into a small pike and a bigger one which snapped off my jig. We came back ashore about 4:30 p.m. in time for me to listen to A Prairie Home Companion, which was a compilation of all his baseball skits, songs and a 30-minute "News" about Babe Ruth's visit to Lake Wobegon in 1934.

We grilled pork steaks for dinner accompanied with baked potato and broccoli; very tasty. After dinner we cleaned up and the watched The Godfather on DVD. As many times as I've seen it, it's still a great movie. Maybe tomorrow, or later this week, we'll watch part Two.

We'll have to go fishing again tomorrow to see if we could catch that second jumbo perch. Both Joe and I want a fish-fry for dinner.

Good night from Leech Lake.