Fishing at Audubon

We spent Friday late afternoon and evening fishing at Lake Audubon. It was a lot of fun. I caught the first bass just moments after dropping the first line in the water. Mr. B caught a walleye. We also caught two more small walleye and a tiny bass but threw them back because they needed to grow more. It was a fun, relaxing afternoon. The breeze and slight cloud cover felt like it was air conditioned outdoors. No overpowering sun to get sunburnt and a cool breeze meant no bugs or mosquitoes. Plus we were catching fish! One couldn't ask for more. We fished as the wind blew and some dark clouds built up even darker.
Then I saw a bolt of lightninng strike further west out over Lake Sakakawea. We fished for just a bit more, then decided we better head for shore when we felt a few drops of rain. The sprinkles of rain were light and occasional. The rain held off long enough for us to head for shore. By this time it was cooling off quite a bit, especially with the random drops of rain. The waves are a bit more aggressive on Lake Audubon than other smaller lakes we usually fish. So rather than drive the boat up onto the trailer myself like I have been doing lately I let Mr. B do it. We were bouncing around on the waves too much to suit me.
Here Mr. B reels the boat up the final few inches up into position on the trailer. Even with all our bouncing around he managed to drive the boat up onto the trailer on the first shot.
When we go fishing I have the 'pleasure' of hanging onto the minnow bucket between my feet on the floor mat inside the truck. This is to ensure that it doesn't topple over during the ride out to the lake. This view shows we had lots of minnows left over from this fishing trip.
North Dakota I-83 crosses the water with Lake Audubon on the east side and Lake Sakakawea on the west side. The water in Lake Sakakawea is the lowest I have ever seen it. When I first moved to North Dakota both sides of the road were very near to full with water coming very close up to the road.
Now with the water so low we can see there are trees and bushes growing on all the sand bars that years ago had been underwater.
Since I haven't taken a drive through this area for quite some time I was shocked to see the water this low. I know it has been low for a long time. Those trees must have been growing for many years by now to be as large as they are.

All of this area used to be underwater when I first came to North Dakota and for many years when the kids were little. What a difference time makes on the landscape.
We ended up taking only one walleye and one small mouth bass home from the lake on Friday night. Usually fish are cleaned outside, but by this time it was raining. You will notice I covered the canisters and other things on the counter with a towel so any tail flipping or sloppiness wasn't quite so much to clean up afterward. Our supper of fish and rice turned out to be very tasty.

We were going to go fishing again today, but the weather forecast calls for rain. So far it hasn't rained here.