Bikes, booze & bait

Bikes, booze & bait Cass Lake, MN

Cass Lake, MN

Okay, sorry for the silly title, but you run out of clever ways to say the same thing year after year. So today we had a relaxing morning, and before noon, Tom & Linda got in the van and drove to Bemidji so Tom could get a new bike pump. After dropping him off at the Bike shop, Linda went to the mall for a little quiet shopping, while Tom hopped on his bike and rode 27 miles to LaPorte (MN, not IN), home of our favorite winery...Forestedge. Linda met him there.

We enjoyed tasting some of our old favorites, and a new Pear wine, and then ordered a glass to sit and drink with our picnic lunch. By then it was pretty late, about 4:00, so we knew supper would also end up being late that day. But hey, what are vacations for if you can't break out of your routines, right?

We returned home and set out for fishing at 6:00 with Chloe, Elise and Zach in the boat. We decided to go back to Pike Bay since everyone had been having such good luck there. There were a few waves on Cass Lake, and the channel was as calm as could be, so we were very surprised when we pulled up to Pike Bay and saw white caps! It was really windy and rough. We decided to brave it anyway, and our perseverance paid off. The waves died down a little over time, and we were able to find our hot spot and drifted over it several times. We ended up catching 20 fish...13 rock bass, 6 perch and Chloe caught her first walleye (a small 12-incher). Although it is hard to say that fishing with 3 kids (who don't remove their own fish, and need some help baiting at times) is relaxing, it was still fun, and they helped us catch a nice bunch of fish!

By the time we got home and Tom got all his fish cleaning done and came in for our fish dinner, it was nearly 11:00 p.m. It was late, but well worth the wait...nothing like a fresh fish dinner!