Sunday at Lake O' The Pines

Awoke late (7:45) to clouds. I'd left my east-facing window with the shade half pulled, to let in the daylight...but all it let in was the light of the camper next door. That was enough to wake Ed but even he didn't get up all that early.  The plan for the day was fishing, but this time I'd insisted that it be a two-part plan--morning fishing, lunch break, afternoon fishing. So I did a quick dog walk and breakfast, then to the lake we hurried.

It was windy and pretty much miserable out there...and then it started raining. Not hard rain but very, very unpleasant. My feet in swim shoes were getting numb and I'd brought socks but no boots. Changing into the socks helped, but they were quickly wet.  I fought several lovely little catfish--they're fun to catch because even the smallest fight like demons. Since I was using a crappie hook with no barbs, they were also easy to take off the hook and return to the water.


Due to the late start, we didn't get back for the "lunch break" until two o'clock, but still it was pleasant to have dry socks, warm feet and a real bathroom. And I'm sure the dogs appreciated their afternoon walk. When we got back out on the water the wind died down a little and the sun peeked out a moment or two.  We were fishing the dead trees that stick up in the shallows, and on our third tree I caught another lovely crappie. After that, nothing.

We weren't equipped for fishing after dark but that was a shame, because it turned into a beautiful night. On the lake, that is. Back at the campsite I was sad to realize that even though a lot of the noisy and annoying people had left, a fifth-wheel had arrived with a guy playing heavy metal, and not even something new--this was some very old junk that I remembered and disliked from long ago when I used to listen to the stuff.

So there was no sitting outside and enjoying the moonlight. But at least the dogs got a decent walk and I got a big bowl of neogiri nooodles with shrimp.