We had left my house just a couple minutes earlier and were only a few blocks away when a light sprinkle started coming down. A couple miles further down the road, the sprinkle changed to a full-fledged rainstorm, with torrents of rain running down the car windows.

I looked over to my buddy Doug, the Commissioner of Fishing, and said, “We might drive out of this once we get closer to the lake.”

“I think so, too,” he said.

I’m not sure if our optimism was backed by any factual weather information, or if we were just plain hopeful.

It continued to rain as we drove north. We went past the lake that we planned to fish, to the next small town three miles away, for breakfast at a small diner. Neither the Commissioner nor I possessed any enthusiasm for going out in the rain to go fishing.

We were both retired from the Army, a month apart from each other, from the same unit years ago. Both of us had spent enough time getting rained on that we now try to avoid it if we can. In the Army, if you are out on a range or in the field and it starts to rain, you put on rain gear and go on. If you are fishing and a rainstorm blows in, you just put on your rain gear and go back to fishing. That’s life.

However, going out in the rain to start with always seems particularly unpleasant and depressing. I never minded being in the field or on the ranges, but I hated starting out in the rain. You just got wet, even with rain gear, and never seemed to dry out. It is the same thing with fishing. If you start out in the rain, it seems to get miserable and stay that way for the rest of the day.

The lights were on at the diner, and it was warm and dry: Time for breakfast, and hopefully the rain will blow through. We got a pot of coffee and ordered their special. It was corn beef hash with two basted eggs, topped with melted cheese. Doug and I ordered that breakfast every time we ate there.

As we ate, the storm continued to lash at the diner, with rain streaming down the windows. “This isn’t looking good,” the Commissioner pointed out. I had to agree. So, we ordered a second pot of coffee, deciding to wait to see what happens.

The Commissioner and I both grew up in Wisconsin. We are Packers fans and remember fondly our boyhood days spent hunting and fishing. Also, both of us spent over 20 years in the Army and have countless memories of those years. With a second pot of coffee, we passed the time exchanging stories of our days in the military, hunting and fishing while growing up in the 1960s, and the Packers chances in the upcoming season.

The time went by fast, and when we finished the second pot of coffee, we looked outside. The rain had diminished to a light splattering and looked like it might quit soon. We decided to head to the boat landing. Besides, we thought a third pot of coffee probably wouldn’t do either of us any good.

It continued to sprinkle as we drove the three miles back to the landing, and by the time we launched the boat, the rain stopped entirely. Although gray clouds shuffled across the sky, at least it wasn’t raining. We raced across the water, and on the far eastern end of the lake, pulled into shallow water alongside a rocky shoreline.

We were fishing sinking plastic worms rigged wacky style. Within the first few casts, we each caught a foot-long largemouth bass. Things were looking up. We were steadily getting strikes, catching some fish and losing others.

Midafternoon, the wind picked up, temperatures dropped, and dark clouds crawled over the horizon. It looked like rain, but behind the dark clouds on the far side of the horizon, there was a thin line of blue sky.

The Commissioner and I are notorious for not getting it right. Either we put on rain gear too early, and it doesn’t rain; or we put it on too late, by the time we are already soaked. It looked like it was going to be a light sprinkle for just a couple minutes so we decided to skip putting on our rain gear. A few minutes later, we got the light sprinkle, but it quickly stopped. This time, we called it right and counted it as a win for us. We were merely damp.

Once the rain left, temperatures rose, blue skies overcame the dark clouds, and it was sunny. We caught fish before the rain, during the rain, and after the rain.

By the end of the day, we had caught and released over 60 bass. It had been a good day of fishing despite all the weather changes.

Also, staying at the diner for a second pot of coffee had been a good idea. No need to start the day by getting wet.