| September 14, 2003 |
| Well, this weekend wasn't too bad. I spent most of it fishing, which is great for a tan. On Friday I went out fishing on Grant Lake. I spent about 3 or 4 hours out there and only caught 6 fish. I also got extremely wet when a Thunderstorm rolled in over the treetops. I was fishing out on a point, and as soon as I saw the clouds, I pulled up anchor and took off for the landing. About half way there it cut loose and started pouring down rain on me, as well as lightning nearby. Lightning + water + aluminum boat = crispy critter if you have bad luck, so I was more than a bit worried. By the time I got to the landing my boat had a few inches of water in it... then while trying to hastily back my trailer into the water, I hit the dock with it and bent the shit out of the right tail light (which I later fixed). Then I got the boat off center on the trailer, so when I pulled it up the boat fell off into the water and half swamped. Much profanity was used as I manhandled the boat back onto the trailer while I was getting soaked. Then, of course, it quit raining about 10 minutes later and the fucking sun came out... after I had already put my boat back out at Rich's place. Oh well, it was close to getting dark anyway, and I really don't like being on Grant Lake after dark. Negotiating the channel is bad enough during the daytime... it's about 5 feet wide and 2 feet deep, there's not much room for error or you'll wind up breaking a prop. I didn't do much on Saturday really, Rich and some of his relatives were having a big rummage sale all weekend, so I just basically hung out there all day. Then I came home and read for my CS and Chemistry classes until the small hours of the morning. Today I got up and went back out to Rich's place because we had some plans to go fishing. He called me this morning and said we needed minnows, so I picked some up on the way out to his place, along with breakfast/lunch from Ikky Mickey's. We took his boat out from noonish to about 230 or so... caught quite a few crappies and bluegills until it started raining. So we headed in before it got bad... man it doesn't take long to get back to shore in a boat that'll do 32 miles an hour compared to one that will do about 9. Guess that's the difference between a 7.5hp outboard and a 50 though. Well, the rain cleared up shortly, but Rich and his relatives were all heading back south tonight so I took my boat out onto Lake Bemidji (for the first time ever) since it was calm. I put in at Diamond Point (which is right on campus here) and went about a mile down to where the Missisippi River joins Lake Bemidji to Lake Irving. I didn't catch anythign there though, and managed to make one hell of a mess in my line, resulting in the loss of about half of it. Then another boat anchored damn near on top of me (I honestly could have hit them with an oar, they were that close) so I picked up anchor and headed down the river to Lake Irving. What really sucks is that when they put up the new bridge over the river, they didn't take out the piling foundations. They now lurk a few inches under water and if you can't see them, you could hit them, resulting in either A. Your boat sinking B. Your boat leaking like a cocksucker C. Your motor losing a prop or lower unit or D. All of the above. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled with the planning behind that.... I didn't stay on Irving very long, the water level was down too far to really fish where I wanted to, so I headed back to the Bemidji side. I headed back to Diamond point and drifted it, but I didn't get anything, so I worked the sunken island off the point, but that didn't yield results either. It was starting to get dark, so I headed in and took my boat back. I stopped out and talked to Brent for a few minutes... they're still working on his new house, so I didn't stay long. Grabbed up some Burger Dong and came back here to do my laundry, update, and finish my homework. That's all of the shit I can remember from this weekend, and so I bring this entry to a close... |