Loren and I sat at the Allegheny Veneer table for breakfast so they wouldn’t be “their own clan”. These guys are fun – laughing at each other and Mark nonstop. I think I notice everyone moving a step slower every day but we are still all to the boats before 8:30. My partner today is Marvin, a Tennessee/Texas gentleman and great conversationalist, and the day passes quickly. We are the only boat back at the lodge for lunch which is a shame because we have huge hotdogs cooked over an open campfire. In the afternoon I catch a pike so large and lively that it breaks my rod in two (well at least it was true that my rod broke).
The Fighting Irish resurface for dinner when Katie serves Mark his dinner wearing a pretty green ND t-shirt with a beautiful shamrock on the front. I actually think I got the upper hand for a moment there. She actually is Irish and privately told me she looks much better in green than orange.
Most of the guys do want to go fishing again after dinner but wait for a sudden rainstorm to let up. Little rainstorms move around and over the lake at random – sometimes they go away and sometimes they just sit and threaten very unpredictably.
Mark and Ed claim they saw a white horse by the shore on the far side today. No one believes them although Bart does suggest maybe it was a unicorn (?). I suspect they stole my bottle of Jameson this afternoon and, being unable to handle good Irish whiskey, got hallucinations. (Brian later admitted that there is an albino moose in the region –be skeptical – Brian, after all, is a veteran ball buster too.)
While I was writing tonight, David paid me to write that he caught 27 trout and 81 pike today but later admitted it was really three and four. (See, David, you should have paid more – I am not that easy.)
Shooting pool, napping and beer are the sports of choice tonight. Ed is working on the award for longest and most naps.
Oh yeah…..Brent sucked Jim into opening the mousetrap booby-trapped little outhouse after dinner and he jumps so high he almost needs a real outhouse.
As I quit writing for the night at 9:00, Brian is taking the entire Lea clan out to teach them the right way to fish. Tempting, but bed looks more appealing to most of us. We’ll hear what, if anything, they catch at breakfast.
Katie dresses up for dinner
Mark tries unsucessfully to mask true beauty
Home away from home
Another exausting day of fishing
My favorite shot, water so glassy you need the boat to tell sky from lake surface
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