Woods & Water by Dick Herfindahl

 

I have just returned from a few days at the cabin and the weather, for the most part, was just about perfect. What’s not to like about warm sunny days and cool nights with one large storm sprinkled in on the first night? The thunder, lightning and stronger than comfortable winds woke me from a good sleep in the middle of the night. I climbed out of bed to shut the windows and patio doors and decided to set up a chair and watch the light show, which never let up all the while the storm raged on. The trees were waving back and forth with a vengeance while they were silhouetted by the constant lightning. This was actually a thing of beauty to behold, if not just a little bit scary.

My dad was always infatuated by storms and whenever I am in the middle of a good (?) lightning storm, I think of him. I can still see him standing out in the front yard in his white sleeveless A-shirt looking up at the rolling clouds while lightning flashed and thunder boomed. It was as if he were mesmerized by the natural beauty of the show that the man upstairs (it’s how he referred to the Lord) was putting on for him to see.

That was the one particular storm I will always remember because as the neighbors were heading to the basement to seek cover, he stood in the yard just taking it all in. I asked him if my mother and I should go into the basement and he told us to go ahead, he would be down in a minute. We never did go down in the basement, instead, I went out and stood by him and watched the magnificence of those swirling clouds and the flashes of lightning until the sky unleashed a downpour of rain. After that day, even as a kid, I understood the fascination that he’d had with thunderstorms.

I wish I could share a few fish stories from this last venture north, but it was more about doing some yard work and relaxing by sitting on the deck and watching the many birds at our feeders. We also drove around and visited a few public accesses, where I did wet a line but didn’t get too serious about it. We made it a point to drive past Anchor Inn, which is on Sand Lake on the Bowstring River chain of lakes. My wife grew up vacationing there and we occasionally vacationed there when the boys were young. It was a great place to go because it sits on the Bowstring River between Little Sand and Rice Lakes. You can travel by boat to “Big” Sand through a channel on the south end of Little Sand. So many places to fish and the fishing was always excellent whenever we were there. We usually went there in early summer or in the fall. We also had some pretty good fishing off of the bridge at Anchor Inn. Yes, many good memories of those years and it looks like the resort is still going strong today.

While we were on our drive, we stopped at a little lake that I had visited a couple of other times in the past. While I was casting off the dock I spotted a nice sized largemouth bass swimming lazily past the dock. Swimming not too far behind was a much larger smallmouth. A few minutes later another largemouth came past, followed shortly after by a huge smallmouth. They seemed oblivious to the fact that I was dangling the perfect lure right in front of their noses. They would take a quick notice and then swim off as if thumbing their nose at me. I didn’t have any takers, but it was a beautiful day and I did see some nice sized fish in this very clean, clear lake.

As we were leaving, I talked to a guy who had just taken his boat out after fishing a few hours. He said in years past he could come to this lake and catch enough sunnies for a nice meal in a very short time. The man told me that he just couldn’t find any sunnies in this lake this year and wondered what had happened. His solution was “I guess I’ll have to start fishing walleyes I know where to catch them”. This gentleman said he has lived in the area for about 15 years and that one day he and his wife had gone to another lake to fish for bluegills and when they were ready to go home he made his way to his pickup only to find a pack of wolves with a bear cub cornered right next to his truck. He said he didn’t have his gun along so all he could do was watch as this horrific event unfolded right in front of him. He said it still bothers him today whenever he thinks of it because it made him feel helpless. Yes, sometimes nature can be downright cruel and watching the survival of the fittest play out in front of you can be pretty difficult. That is one tale of the outdoors I will not be forgetting any time soon.

Until next time, enjoy the summer weather and take advantage of all of the beautiful parks and lakes that we have to enjoy in our area.

Please remember to keep our troops in your prayers. We must not let ourselves forget those that are still putting themselves in harm’s way so we can enjoy all of the wonderful freedoms we have today.