Sep 1 - it's all about fishing

Not much else happened yesterday. I went out in the a.m. but didn't catch anything other than 2 sunfish and 2 perch. All four went back. Once home, I went down 522 and set my minnow traps and then came back home again, switched 4-wheeler for car, and went into town to fill some Jerry cans with gas.

I puttered around mid-day, doing more cleanup work in the barn. I finally dealt with the "ladder to nowhere" -- the oak ladder that Dad had made for the old cottage. It was a beautiful piece of work, but had been standing in the barn for 4+ years now. This is the ladder from which Philip fell and broke his wrist and was a centerpiece in the cottage leading from to the loft. It was too big to ship to Arlene's garage :) and weighed a ton. So ... with a bit of nostalgia, I cut it up for firewood. It seemed a shame. People are important; things are not; but things remind us of people. Some are monuments and last; others simply need to be dealt with, eventually. Ok ... enough.

We had planned to eat early so that I could go out fishing with Donnie and Isaac. Sandy invited Deloris over for dinner as well. Before dinner I popped over to see Jim Matthews, who has hurt his neck again, to discuss splitting the wood piled beside my driveway. By 6pm we were eating -- bass, beans and rice -- actually I think that it was bass, beans and basmati :). 6:25 and Donnie was over ... off we went.

Donnie had brought a cooler. I asked what was in the cooler -- pop, water and beer. I said "no beer" ... Donnie was fine with that and out they came. 100 yards from the shore Donnie asked -- did you get minnows ? Whoops ! Back we went for the minnows. Whew. With three full sized adults in the boat Abby had to stay behind. I'm sure that she was not happy.

Donnie was convinced that he was going to use artificial to catch crappy and no sooner had he dropped his lure in the water than he pulled one in. We then went a log spell with nothing and then the action started. Donnie was getting nothing on artificial and switched to minnows ... and we three used minnows for the rest of the night. 25 fish in all, including 4 catfish, not including several small crappie that we threw back, a perch, a small pike -- we had a good haul.

There were some unusual things about the fishing last night. For one thing, we didn't catch as many catfish as usual. They were mostly biting on Donnie's rig, which he sits on the bottom -- no surprise there. He lost as many catfish as he caught -- which is unusual. Usually they are so well hooked you couldn't lose them if you tried. At one point I was netting a catfish on his line and almost netted two -- another catfish was following the first and I almost netted both. Isaac did not catch any catfish. The crappie kept biting, on and off, until well after dark ... and we finally pulled up anchor when it was impossible to see the hooks to put on minnows.

Back home, we started cleaning fish. Donnie and Isaac returned home briefly to bring back his fish cleaning tools and we worked both sides of the counter -- Donnie and me that is. Isaac watched. It was after 11pm when we finished, with almost 4 pounds of fillets. I gave Donnie more than half, since there were two of them fishing, and kept the catfish, since it didn't sound like they like the catfish all that much. Oh -- one of the fish in the basket was a sunfish ... a large sunfish ... as good or better eating than the crappie, according to some. They are cleaned the same as the crappie, same shape, same size.

Since this is Donnie we are talking about, we had a couple of beer while we were cleaning the fish. Well, I had two beer -- one during and one after -- he had more. He can go through the Coors Light like they are water. Sandy had gone over at 1pm for something the prior day and Donnie had offered her a beer.

So the day wrapped up ... I watched TV for a while and went to bed. Claudia has another appointment today in Restoule and then the three of them are heading back home. Donnie returns tomorrow with a couple of friends ... I didn't catch the details but I think that he's back home in Penetang for the weekend because they were talking about school shopping.

Isaac is a good kid. Tall -- 6'4" -- plays basketball, does very well in school -- his parents are an interesting contrast and he seems to have an easy going relationship with both. He calls Donnie "Don", but not out of disrespect. Donnie is very good with him, instructive at all times. Donnie and Claudia are going to Greece in a couple of weeks, flying to Athens and then island hopping, if I remember correctly.

Today is another day. The sun is up; it's in the low 50's; I may go out and see if there are any bass biting. It's glassy calm right now so it would be quite pleasant sitting at the point for a while. I won't bother going further down the lake. I wanted to get down to Smith's Bay landing, where we fished last night, to try morning fishing ... but that can wait until tomorrow. Later I'll go for a bike ride.

I heard from Jason -- his garage is being delivered on Friday so his plan to come up on Thursday has definitely firmed up !

That's it. Oh -- I think that we've firmed up our travel plans for next week. We'll leave Wednesday and go to Carol and Allister's "camp" as cottages are called in Quebec. From there we'll go to Sheryl's and then onto NYC on Friday. Friday night through Sunday night we'll be in NYC -- take in a show on Saturday; Sandy will also take in a show on Sunday, with Angelika if she makes it into NYC; I'll do my bike ride on Sunday; then we'll head to Reading PA on Monday morning to see Jeffrey. Tuesday we'll leave for Florida -- I have not decided which route we'll take yet -- I95 or I81.

Onward.