I woke up at 5 AM to a steady rain falling on the tent roof, and Cam woke up shortly thereafter. The rain continued and didn’t let up. I finally left the tent and headed out just long enough to grab the stove, coffee pot, and breakfast. We heated up water for our instant coffee and enjoyed peanut butter bagels for breakfast. After that, we played a few rounds of gin rummy and got out the guitar and my miniature banjo for a bluegrass jam. We enjoy playing music together. Grandpa’s big five person tent gave us both plenty of room to relax. The rain did not let up at all until 10 AM. We stayed relatively dry thanks to the fact that I always put my tarp on the inside of the tent, which allows water to flow between the tent floor and the tarp. Some water did get inside the tent, but thankfully our sleeping bags stayed dry and we stayed comfortable.

We were originally planning to head for Ogishkemuncie this day, but as the rain wore on we decided to take our layover day on Alpine instead of on Ogish as we originally planned. So after the rain stopped, we headed off to the falls again and fished the bay immediately in front of the falls. When that didn’t produce anything, we headed into the bay on the other side of the falls, where Cam caught two bass on an artificial minnow setup. One of them was about eighteen inches and was close to his personal best smallmouth. Cam also missed a very large pike that followed his lure right to the canoe.

We had lunch and spent some time around camp drying things out. After that we headed up to the northern end of Alpine and unsuccessfully tried a few spots for walleye. My outfitter told me they were in thirty to thirty-five feet of water, but jigs, twister tails, and leeches failed to find where they were. A large flock of geese passed overhead, calling loudly and reminding me that fall was in full swing. It was pleasant outside but I could see developing fronts all around us, so we headed back to camp as a dark line of cloud came down across the north end of the lake. We pulled the things off the line and headed into the tent as the rain began to come down harder and harder. For about ten minutes we waited in the tent as the rain came down as hard as I’ve ever seen it come down. It rained so hard that raindrops were hitting the tent and misting through on the inside. The noise was so loud that we had to yell to each other if we wanted to talk.

The rain moved out as quickly as it moved in. We headed back out fishing by the falls. I caught two small pike on a spoon and Cam caught another small bass. We returned to camp for a dinner of ramen and pringles as a large double rainbow formed in the sky to the east of us. It was a pleasant reminder of God’s promises to us. We fished the falls area one more time as dusk fell but were unsuccessful.