August 7-10, 2012 -- In Minnesota

Here's a quick recap of the past few days to get caught up on my posts.

August 7
The weather today was warm, with high temperatures up near 80 degrees. The sky was sunny with just some big fluffy clouds, and a wind out of the north at 8-12 mph. It felt muggy as I did some cleaning around the house, took the garbage and recycling down to the community center, locked up the cabin, out-buildings and house, and then started on my drive to St. Cloud. I made a stop in Walker to pick up a case for my Stihl MS 290 chainsaw, but other than that, and a quick stop in Pine River for gas and something to eat, I drove straight through to St. Cloud. I spent the late-afternoon and evening at Kathleen's mom's house before heading down to the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport to pick up Joe. His flight arrived at 11:15 p.m. and we arrived back in St. Cloud around 1:30 a.m., where we spent the night at Marge Coyle's house.

August 8
The weather in St.Cloud was relatively cool at 74 degrees in the morning, and it was overcast and looked like it could rain; although it never did. Joe and I had breakfast at Perkin's near Marge's house and the highlight was just as we were being seated the table next to us was leaving. It was then I noticed that the man at the next table was none other than fishing-legend, Fishing Hall of Fame member, Al Lindner, founder of the In-Fisherman empire and Lindy/Little Joe tackle company. I've been a fan of Al's since the early-1980s when my interest in fishing was renewed with trips to local bass lakes near San Luis Obispo, California. And at last, my path had crossed with the greatest fisherman of our era.

After breakfast Joe and I went to visit Marge at St. Benedict's and took her to see her sister and her husband had recently moved into the nursing home section of St. Ben's. We spent a couple of hours visiting with them before heading back to Marge's house. Later in the evening, Joe and I met Tim, Sandy, their boys, Marge and Tom S. and his daughter for dinner at Bravo Burritos, a favorite dining establishment of ours. We had a nice meal and had plenty of time to talk and catch up before parting ways. Joe and I, along with Tim and his boys continued the evening by taking in the movie, The Dark Knight Rises, the third of the new Batman trilogy.

August 9
The weather was again fairly cool in the morning, but warmed throughout the day. We cleaned up Marge's house, did the laundry and then started on our way north to Leech Lake. We made stops in Baxter and Walker for supplies, but managed to be sitting on the dock looking at the beauty of the lake by 5:30 p.m. We spent a fun evening at home listening to music and just hanging out. It's good to have Joe at the lake. I hope he enjoys his time here.

August 10
The temperature this morning at 8:00 a.m. was a cool 63 degrees. The wind was light at 5-8 mph out of the NNW and the sky was sunny with hardly a cloud visible. Joe wasn't feeling too good today so he spent most of the day resting and taking it easy. Travel has never been easy for him. After spending some time cleaning up around the house and doing some laundry, I decided to fishing.

The water temperature has dropped as a result of the cooler weather and is now 76.7 degrees. There is another algae bloom going on right now, about the fifth or sixth one this summer, which is a sign of a healthy lake and strong ecosystem. I decided to start the day by pulling a spinner rig with a nightcrawler at a ground speed of roughly 1 1/2 mph using the kicker motor. I took the boat south well out into Duck Bay before looping out into the bay and heading north. I got a couple of light taps, but didn't hook a fish. When I had gone as far north as Schiebe's cabin I changed tactics and switched to a jig and plastic grub-like bait. I hooked into something big, most likely a pike, but despite playing the fish carefully (with the drag set properly), the bit through the line and escaped. I quickly tied on another jig and tipped it with another artificial plastic bait and set about fishing. A short time late I boated a nice jumbo perch that measured a full 11-inches. I put that fish in the live well. With one more perch like that, Joe and I will have enough for a fish fry dinner.

The night was spent quietly after dinner with Joe going to bed early and me spending some time online. All in all, a very nice day on Leech Lake.