The expected rain did start about midway through the night and continued on through morning. Unfortunately, this revealed that my good old tent had a leak and while we did not get completely soaked, enough water came in to drip from the ceiling and dampen our gear. As the rain persisted, we knew it was going to be a wet day.

After donning my rain gear, I went down to the shore to try for some early morning fish. While Chuck and Kirby went out looking for them in a canoe, I was soon joined lakeside by Greg while Craig and Dave stayed back up by the fire grate to start on cooking breakfast. It was too wet for a fire so the bacon and eggs were all done over isopro and sterno. Our morning meal was thoughtfully served to us down by the water and while eating breakfast in a cold rain wasn't the greatest, it sure beat going hungry.

On the plus side, the bass now decided it was time to cooperate and we started bringing in some decent sized eaters, building a nice stringer of fish for supper. Chuck and Kirby were also doing well out in the canoe so we were going to have enough fish for everyone to have a few fillets that night. After a few hours, though, I started to feel damp and chilled so it was time to take a break under the tarp for some more food and some warmer, drier clothes. Shortly after lunch, steady rain did finally reduce to a fine mist making time out from under the tarp more tolerable. We resumed fishing and added enough smallies to our stringers that it was now going to be quite the fishie feast. Chuck and Greg made quick work of cleaning our catch and again it was time to start cookin'. By now we were able to dry enough wood to coax a fire (we used my new Pocket Bellows to help it along--this gadget worked great and was one of the best pieces of gear I'd brought on this trip). This allowed us to double our speed with cooking up all of the fillets--canned-fuel and campfire cooking got us all fed in no time. As supper concluded the rain quit completely and we even saw a few patches of blue sky before dark. We kept the fire going and enjoyed another nice evening before turning in to the distant sound of thunder, warning us that more rain was moving in.