Day 10.

Pouring down rain and blowing a gale.  Need I say more?

Yesterday it looked something like this.

Today is a little different.

I don't think the towels are getting particularly dry, but it's a contest between the gale wind and the pouring rain.

Kathy seems content.  A computer, sewing, and a cup of joe.  Pretty much satisfies any need she might have.

Going home sometime tomorrow.  Enough of this Michigan summer.  High tomorrow...62 degrees.

Pure Michigan!

Day 9, 10, 11, ...

The boating is likely over for the week.  The forecast is for storms and wind through the weekend.  We set lines near the harbor Thursday morning as sunrise neared.

The reason to fish close to shore was the change in water temperature after the northerly winds on Tuesday.
Surface temperature went from 73 degrees Monday to 42 degrees Wednesday.  It had warmed again to a little over 50 degrees by Thursday.

That's 44.6 degrees 25' under the surface.  It was about 65 degrees there last time I fished.

We continued on a west troll as the sun rose in search of a fish or two or...

but there weren't any to be found.

We did have a few bites, lost a nice fish and boated two little fish we threw back in the lake.  The salmon scatter when there's a big change like that.

We're planning on company today and tomorrow before heading home Saturday afternoon or Sunday.  The camping crowd wants to come here and invade the House of Flavors.  They have good ice cream, but I'm not sure it's worth the 60 mile drive.

Day 8.

Today was a bit of a maintenance day.  I've been wanting to finish polishing the hull part that I couldn't get to while the boat was in storage.  I needed to turn the boat around in the slip to get that done.  I finally did that today.

and performed the wax on, wax off operation.

Since there was a cool north breeze today, this worked out well for Kathy so she could be downwind on the back deck to supervise the work while working on a sewing project.

With Kathy's superior guidance, I put a nice gloss on the starboard side of the boat.

The wind continued to blow throughout the day so we didn't go out on the lake.

One thing about being here during the week.  There isn't much company.  The dock is void of the usual weekend social gatherings.

Yesterday's north wind blew out all the warm surface waters so the fishery is likely to suffer for a few days.  The surface temperature went from 73 degrees yesterday to 42 degrees today.  I'll see if by some chance this cold water has chased some fish toward shore in the morning.  Tomorrow is the last day forecast to be calm for several days.

Just one of those years.  Maybe I need to take up sewing as well.  Not so weather dependant.

Day 7.

Short and sweet today.

Took a road trip...

south to Grand Haven to visit family.  I thought about swimming, but the cool temperature and rip current warnings kept me out of the water.

But that little ole' red flag wasn't going to deter our clan.

They didn't last long in the water and commented on the difficulty of moving in the water.  You think maybe that's why they warn you about going in the water? 

Looks like the lake might be lumpy for a bit.  Not sure of the future agenda.  Just have to play it by ear.

Day 6

Hard to believe it's been a week already since I left my office chair in Auburn Hills.

The lake conditions appeared to be OK this morning so we motored out of the harbor.  The mission for today was to get at least three fish to take to the family clan camping in Grand Haven this week.  The pressure was on.  We set lines a little south of Big Sable Point.

There was a lack of photography on the lake for some reason, but we did catch a few fish.  We had boated two real nice salmon, threw back a little one, and lost another by about 9am.  We REALLY wanted that third fish so stuck it out on the lake as the sun rose.  About 10am I was desperate.  Time to deploy the...

Yup, "Smelly Jelly".  I bought this stuff a couple years ago.  With the advent of fishing with strips of herring for salmon, I figured it was the scent that was the big deal so I have the "stink" without the mess.  Today was the first time I've opened it.  I dunked a fly into the goop and sent it down 60' on a downrigger.  Fifteen minutes later...FISH ON!  Not sure it was the Smelly Jelly, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Fish #3 in the cooler and mission accomplished.

The wind was building so it was time to get off the lake.

It was a little choppy, by the time we were nearing the harbor, waves had built to 2'-3'.

Our 10,000 lbs. stays in the water pretty well up to about 4' seas.  This guy, that we passed, probably wishes he had a little more ballast. 

It felt good to enter the harbor after the 7 mile trek from the point.

As I said, we did catch fish...here are two of the three we put in the cooler.  The three fish were between 16 and 18 lbs. each.

We cleaned the fish, cleaned up and ran a few errands in town.  It was time for dinner.

Grilled chicken and Veggies in foil.

Off to the "kitchen" to slave over a hot stove.  Well, kind of slave.

And a view from the kitchen window that's hard to beat.

Dinner's ready!

Dinner's over and dishes are done. 

Time to enjoy the evening from the back deck.

Tomorrow is a trip to Grand Haven to deliver fish and visit family.  That works well since the lake forecast is 30 knot winds from the north.  I may need my winter wear.  We'll see how chilly that north blow becomes.

Until then...

Day 5

I'll start out with a look back to last evening which I didn't get to post because of the lousy internet service at the marina when there are a hundred people with their phones and Ipads all connected to the wi-fi.  The fishermen have left and the cocktail crowd hasn't opened their eyes yet this morning so the service should function at the moment.

We walked out to the outer harbor last night to watch the sunset.  Now that Kathy is here, we seem to walk to the beach on a regular basis.

The sunset was nice last night.

As the sun hit the horizon, It appeared to melt into the water.  I thought the silhouette of the pier walkers made an interesting image.

So with the sun down, we walked back along the channel and saw the tug "Zeus".  It ran to about this point in the channel, suddenly stopped, did a u-turn, and ran back up into the lake.  We think the captain probably discovered that he had lost his barge.

After a few days of hot and sticky, we need a jacket this morning.  Don't know what the schedule might bring.  If it calms down, we'll go and try to catch a fish this evening after all the tournament crowd vacates.

More later...

Well, it was a lazy day.  Kathy did a little research on the computer (no doubt looking at the latest in fabrics)...

while I set out to troll the channel a little bit before the tournament fleet returned.

The fleet did return...

and weighed in a bunch of salmon.

We were going to give it another try this evening, but the skies are threatening.  We left the dock and motored about a mile out of the harbor and then turned around and headed back to the marina.  It was just a little too choppy and dark in the west to be real comfortable with a 7 mile trip out of the harbor.

Maybe tomorrow.

Day 4

Got up early this morning to run down to the pier and watch the tournament fishermen head out.  The weatherman did his job and offered up a nice morning after the blow yesterday.

It's 5:30am and the exodus begins.

15 minutes later the channel fills with boats heading to the lake.

And if a hundred plus fishermen in the channel isn't enough, let's throw in a 410 foot long ferry boat.

Eventually, everyone got into the lake to wait for the 6:00am tournament start.

It's 6:00am...and they're off.

Mean while, back at the ranch.  Since I was up at this early hour, might as well go see if I can catch something in PM Lake and enjoy the morning.

I fished a couple of my normal unproductive spots and decided to motor back up the lake.

It's a fun 20mph ride in what is essentially a 10' innertube.

In the back end of the lake, I encountered a doe and fawn walking along the reeds near the shore.

Fishing wasn't any good, so I went back to the boat where Kathy arrived shortly after and took up her usual post on the back deck.

I don't expect to fish again before later tomorrow at the soonest so I have the camper top up for her.  She likes the shade.

The afternoon and evening agenda is open.  I'm feeling a nap coming on.  Good news is that the heat and huimidity of the past few days is gone.  It's real pleasant now.