If he's in Minnesota fishing, Bruce is smiling!

We took off Sunday after church for a short fishing trip at the Minnesota cabin, coming home Tuesday night, after all, Bruce golfs on Wednesdays. He was chomping at the bit, wanting to get out on a lake, any lake, with a fishing pole in his hand but cabin chores came first.

The lawn was badly in need of mowing, if it were at home, we could have baled it. I was puttering around, putting food away, took the grill outside and there on a little tree outside the door, was a tiny, baby tree frog! He was so cute! He only measured about a half inch so I had to screw on my macro lens, then get really close and he was very, very nervous. I love their tiny suction cup feet.

 

While we were eating supper, Bruce gave me his best cow eyes, took my hand and asked, "Will you get up in good time in the morning to go fishing??!" After a moments thought, I said, "Will you bring me coffee and wake me gently? And make me breakfast??" Hey, I want to milk this!

 

Bruce quickly agreed and, true to his word, I felt a gentle hand rubbing my arm and he was holding a mug of coffee. He took my breakfast order, Little Smokies with 2 eggs and toast and scurried back to the kitchen. I could get used to this but knew it wouldn't last.

 

We went to Little Birch Lake, it was a beautiful morning, we brought sweatshirts and coats expecting it to be cold. The water was like glass with the sun rising.

 

 

Bruce discovered my fishing rod got left home so he gave me another that I was totally unfamiliar with. But it must not have been too bad, the second cast I had a fish! "I'm off the SNIDE!!" Not big enough to keep which made me happy and the last one I would catch that morning.

 

 

I'm not a hard core fisherman, I take plenty of books along and read when I get bored with throwing my lure out across the water and only hauling in some water weed. And I had such a good book, I was  dying to finish it, 'Keeping Faith' by Jodi Picoult, it's a GREAT book and I'm done with it if someone wants it. So I would fish a little, cuss my fishing rod, Bruce would apologize, I would put it down and pick up my book.....

 

Bruce, on the other hand, can and has, fished all day and loved every minute of it. I have lots of pictures from this trip to prove it, such as this one....

 

 

and this one....

 

and this one.....

 

By the time we went in for dinner, there were 3 bass in the live well to eat. Bruce got a nasty surprise when he first opened the live well to put his fish in, one got left in from the last fishing trip! EWWWW!! STINKY!!

 

While he cleaned fish, I grilled some burgers, then Bruce took a nap while I ran to town. The sky started clouding up, looking like it could rain so we went out for the evening fishing earlier than usual. This time we went to Bass Lake by Grey Eagle and it lived up to it's name. I caught this nice bass, again too small to keep and, again, I was just as happy.

 

 

In between sprinkles from the sky, Bruce caught fish...

 

 

more fish...but none big enough to keep.

 

When we got back to the cabin, I went down the road to see our neighbor Kelly and her new baby, Gus. He is a Great Denard, Great Dane and St. Bernard cross, 9 months old and 125# of puppy.

 

 

Kelly and Tyler are going to build a new house next year and their old house, which is really, really nice, is going to be moved across the driveway and that cabin torn down.

 

Tuesday morning was raining so Bruce let me sleep in but still brought me coffee in bed and fixed my breakfast to order. Hmmmmm, what am I doing wrong at home? It was another nice morning, we went to Horseshoe Lake north of Browerville, where the fishing was slow. I did get a hit on the first cast, just a little guy and when I jerked to set the hook, it popped out of his mouth and he cartwheeled at least 3 revolutions before disappearing back into the water. I wondered what went through his little fish brain and the story he had to tell his friends at school.

 

Bruce caught the nicest fish of the trip, a 3.4# bass that had to be full of eggs with that fat belly, so she was weighed and returned to the water - which made me happy.

 

 

 

Look at that mouth, they don't call them large- mouth bass for nothing.

 

Then Bruce did an impossible stunt, he caught two fish at once! Actually, I caught one, handed him the fish to take off when he discovered he had a fish on. Mine flopped around on the bottom of the boat while he landed his, then held them both up for the picture. They were both too small to keep and that made me happy.

 

We stayed out till noon, then it was time to head back home. Bruce did have one fish to clean while I fixed dinner and packed. We got home about 7:30, time enough to check to see that all the animals were okay. Mollie wiggled and cried and wet the ground, I know we were missed. I didn't get coffee in bed this morning, sigh.

 

On a happy note, Bruce's sister, Shirley, the great pie baker, had hernia surgery this morning and called us herself to say she was headed home from the hospital! Hope your recovery is just as uneventful, Gerb!