We're having a heat wave and near drought. Returned to Fridley today for an appointment tomorrow. We'll stay here until next Wed when Mar has an appointment, return to the lake right after that. I'm on to go try Miltona for Muskies with Ted on Thursday so I'll wanna get back to the lake early enough to trailer up Wed evening before full dark.
It's gonna be hot there too, mid to high 90's. Welcome to July. I don't mind a bit of heat but Minnesota Mary doesn't like it a bit. The forecast is for the heatwave to break by Monday. Normal high in Glenwood for this date is 83, normal low is 60. They may well break a record (95) on Saturday. We could see 100 in the cities on that date.
The lake is now warm enough for very enjoyable (invigorating!) swimming. Surface temp is about 81, but it cools significantly even a couple of feet below the surface. Man, there is nothing like a swim after mowing or trimming trees. It feels GREAT once one has mustered the pucker to completely submerge for the first time each dip, or grit one's teeth and dive off the dock. (Better be a shallow racing dive!) Not exactly Seal rigor but mission here is now HFIJ1. (Having fun is job 1)
We had Ted 'n Nancy over for dinner last evening. "Fitch food!" We cooked a beef tenderloin whole on the gas grill. I say "we" because Ted is the grillmeister. He says 350 is plenty hot enough. Geez, I thought 700 might be more like it. Nope, not for a thicker cut of good meat -- slow is better. I just last week installed a thermometer on my grill, just an aftermarket job ($12) that merely required me to drill a 7/8" hole in the grill lid. I was amazed to see what that sucker was registering -- 70F but on the second lap. (The thermometer peaks at 500 and there's a big gap from there around to
70) Then I figured out how the valves work on the grill burners. Oooohhhhh! Oy din't kneau that! No wonder I cremated the pork chops last time.Twerked out very nicely, just took one more gin 'n tonic than expected. (Ted does like his pint-sized G&T's. No problem, plenty of Bombay Sapphire at hand.) After about 30 mnutes (rather than the expected 12 or so), I judged it done and pulled it. We'd cut and butterflied a steak for Nancy who likes hers medium well. The rest of us like it rare, not quite bloody but close. All turned out perfect, just perfect! Butterknife tender and I'd seasoned it lightly with Montreal steak seasoning. It was unquestionably better than anything we've had at the best steakhouses (Ruth's Chris, Lindy's and Murray's) in Minneapolis.
Mary had made some escalloped potatoes from a box mix, jazzed up with a baked-in cover of pepper jack cheese and maybe some smoked gouda. YUM! Also garlic/cheese bread from the oven and mixed veggies nuked with a bit of butter. Salad? You see any rabbits, we dint see no steenkin rabbits. This was a meat 'n potatoes yummy grub at-the-lake supper.
After dinner, about 7:30 or 8:00, Ted and I repaired to my lil' green boat for a bit of evening fishin'. We ran down to his place, only half a mile and less than a minute by water, to fetch his favorite rod and "travellin'" tacklebox from his boat. Ted fishes differently than I do so good chance for me to learn a little about his technique. He trolls, dragging a crankbait. Works for him. Might work for me too if I just see enough success to get motivated to do it more. So that's what we did. I ran the boat per his directions. Ted knows what he's doing, I know my boat.
We started at about 10 feet. Ted caught three to my none though we were dragging identical lures. Hmmm! I asked him if he was bumping the sparse weed tops I was seeing on the sonar. . Yup! Aha. I'd wondered about his choice of shallow-runner crankbait in 10 feet of water. The trick is to give it enough line (way more than can be cast) so it'll dig down to where the fish are. I ran out some more line till I could feel the lure ticking weeds now and then. I've enough experience to know weed ticks from fish. That takes a few years, but I've been doin' it for more than a few years. I picked up a pretty decent bass right away. Aw right!
While trolling I was watching the sonar, of course, and asking questions. A common misperception is that sonars are "fishfinders". They do mark fish in deep enough water, but that's not their primary use. They're more for reading the depth structure, contour and composition of the bottom. Finding the fish is still up to the fisherman who knows a bit about where fish might be found. Hm, looks like a flat here, is there a weedy edge nearby? Nope, but there are often fish here anyway. OK, so some 'Waska fish didn't read the Buck Perry books, roger thet. They're probably enroute from somewhere to somewhere else, but that's part of the idea of trolling: cover a fair amount of water in a short time and pick up active fish en route to or from their feeding grounds. That'd be to rather than from at dusk.
Later, as the light waned, we moved in to 8 feet and I noted a dropoff over between the marina channel and the swimmin' beach. Yup, run the edge of the drop. Roger! I caught two more, one felt like a dandy, but I didn't get hooksets on either of them. I asked Ted if he was slamming his hooksets. Yup! Geez, I've never had to set the hook on a cast crank, but Herr Fischmeister hath spake and this earnest mentee heedeth. (I'm still THE MAN when it comes to plasting wormin' and jig 'n pig, but I was the apprentice here. Way cool!) OK, I tried slammin' my sets. That worked! I didn't get anything noteworthy, but I boated what I caught. Ted stuck a really nice bass, at least a four. Ted said, "Hmph. One bluegill, one sunfish, one crappie, one perch, three bass, and not one damned walleye." That tells me that this presentation, pattern of depths, trolling speed (2.4 mph) and time of day this time of year usuallly does fetch him some wallies. Duly noted.
Suddenly, about full dark, the light breeze quit and the bugs descended upon us with a bloodthirsty vengeance. Oh my, let's get outta here RFN. I had nav and marker lights running by then. Started the engine, headed for home (coupla miles) but not fast, just enough speed to keep the bugs off. Good thing! Some nimrod was out there bobber fishin' with no lights. He lit up when he heard us coming, but if I'd have been runnin' fast it might have been close. I suppose he figured with just 3 boats in sight in the 3 miles of lake he could see, he could run dark. Not very smart. Folks do run at speed at night mid-lake, no reason not to unless there are careless folk who run dark after dark. In his defense, we weren't exactly runnin' mid-lake though we were definitely a fair ways out from shore. Sonar showed 10 feet, that's a fair ways out anywhere along the north shore.
Oh well, no harm no foul, no knotted knickers. Minnewaska is a lot different than metro. I like that about it. I like it a lot.
Navigated home by GPS, spotted the lift from 150 feet out with the
3-watt (65 lumen) pocket Luxeon so that worked as hoped. Missed a minor mishap by half an inch when hitting the lift. Intent on the bow to get on the lift straight, I forgot to check the tall white running light on the stern. It cleared the canopy, but just by a whisker. Phew! Note to self: pull that running light before final approach to lift! Only damage would have been to bend the stalk on the light, but it is a rather nice running light (thank you, Ranger) that I'd rather keep intact.I'm already looking forward to next week, runnin' up to Miltona with Ted to try for a muskie. I don't know zip about muskie fishin', don't know if Ted does or not. Doesn't matter. We'll have a good time. Nancy 'n Mary said, "oh goodie, we can run down to Terrace and have lunch and visit the nice gift shop." Ungh. "Ted, isn't there a pretty good gun shop in Osakis?" "Oh, yeah!" And so on....
Geez, we're not yet to our first Minnewaska anniversary (that'd be tomorrow in fact) and we already feel like we belong. We were genuinely saddened to learn that the guy who runs the "antique" (read second-hand) shop on 28 died a coupla weeks ago. We stopped in to find a casserole dish for the scalloped potatoes, noted a lady behind the counter rather than the guy we'd chatted a while with several times. We asked how he was doing -- and learned that he'd recently died. Bummer! The lady was his wife. Geez, someone said he'd stopped by our place on his scooter recently to visit but we were gone to town or something at the time. Their daughter runs Lyn's, a little breakfast restaurant in Starbuck. We went there this morning with Ted 'n Nancy for breakfast. They only do breakfast, and they do a superb job of it. Nothin' fancy, just good grub and good coffee. Lyn also does some upholstery, did some very nice work for Ted 'n Nancy.
Mary's casserole dish ended up costing $66 with tax. That'd be $3 for the Corningware casserole dish, $24 for a quilt rack she liked that we discovered was made of solid old-and-dark black walnut, and (deleted here, a birthday present I think you'll like.)
Stopped in St Cloud on the way home to visit the Mill End fabric store there. Came close to conflict -- I purely HATE being directed by one who is driven to direct while contributing no new intel. She finally said "let's just go home." Not! I knew for a certainty that I was within two blocks of the store, been there before, just needed a bit more recon to get oriented. The issue was confused by signs directing to the store that had relocated since the signs were placed. Fuggedaboud the signs, I just had to find the urban terrain I recalled from a recent recon. I decided to pro-act rather than react. I just said "Mary, chill. We are very close and I *will* find it, then you can decide if you want to visit or skip it." Chilly silence. That'll work. Drove half a block. I quietly said, " I have visual at 11 o'clock, see the red sign, we're there." "What red sign?" I'll admit evil Machiavellian intent, since I know my ability to see a pattern in clutter is much better than hers. Ya go with what ya got, right? We drove another two blocks. "OH! Foreman, I am impressed! Now if you...." "Mary, chill" I grinned. She grinned back and chilled. When we stopped there, she said if I'd said "stifle, Edith" she'd have swatted me. I admitted it had crossed my mind.and might still be worth the swat. I won't recount her retort....
I found a shady place to park and read me book and had a smoke while she shopped. I was gonna sit on the tailgate of the truck but an untethered big ol' yellow dog in an immediately adjacent lot didn't like that idea. He barked and hauled his tired old yellow ass up, wagged one half-wag to let me know he wasn't looking for a fight but he was definitely paying attention. I decided to sit in the cab rather than on the tailgate which admittedly did kinda overhang his turf. Worked for him, he plopped and resumed his summer nap -- probably with one eye open. A dog has responsibilities, ya know.
When Mary was back in the truck and as we were starting to roll, I mentioned that I'd been in the cab in respect of a canine local resident. She said, "ya mean that big ol' yellow dog over there?" Her long-range scan ability may not be as acute as mine, but she does pay attention when out and about. Can't say where she learned that. Mere alertness can and often does repel predators looking for easy prey because easy prey is oblivious to threat. Gray hair sez easy, an aware demeanor says maybe not so easy.
I do enjoy her quick ascerbic wit. Yesterday the question somehow came up about whether or not I found Nancy attractive. I uttered the obligatory (and true) response of "not compared to you, my dear...." and then went to to say "and she isn't near as good a f**k as you are!" She instantly responded with "do you suppose Ted would say the same?" with her patent leprechaun "who, me?" face. Why do I love this woman?