Jul 31 - the one that didn't get away

Talk about a reversal of fortune ! Ok, I'll come back to that.

Let's see -- I concluded the last blog right after 3pm. David, Kim and Meagan had arrived. A little later, David and I went with the ATC's and picked up the minnow traps and minnows. That left me well stocked for fishing.

We had salmon, asparagus & smashed potatoes for dinner. Philip had not arrived yet so we still fit inside. Besides, it was really too cool to eat outside. Time will tell whether we'll be able to do any outside eating -- it doesn't look good.

We ate early enough for a short time fishing, so David and I headed out with the girls -- Keri and Meagan. The boys -- Daniel and Ira -- will have their turn another day. My inclination was to simply go to the point by the last cottage and fish for whatever was biting there -- likely rock bass -- but David wanted so "real" fishing ... ok. We motored down to Smiths Bay landing, getting there for what I thought might be 1/2 hour fishing before the crappie or whatever was biting that day would retire for the night. Boy was I wrong ... on several accounts. We were there until dark, which was a little after 9pm, finally chased away by the clouds of mosquitoes, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We dropped the four lines and I immediately caught a good sized crappie. Ok, we're not skunked. A minute later my rod bent over ... crappie ... no, catfish ... no ... and for about the next 10 minutes I was reeling in my catch. In six feet of water how can it take that long to reel in your catch ? Well, that's because the pike kept on taking the line out. When I finally got him up to the boat, still not quite played out, David netted him and all the weeds that he's picked up and he was a monster. Long story short -- just under 7.5 pounds; fillets weighed 3 pounds, 10 oz -- biggest darn fish that I've ever caught.

Then it was quiet. The girls wanted to change spots and fish from my corner of the boat. Wait ... Keri caught a crappie. Wait ... and they kept coming ... total haul -- 3 crappie, 1 rock bass, 1 pike and ... and ... 7 catfish. The catfish were still biting when we left but we were chased away by the bugs. What a night. Keri caught 5; David caught 2; Meagan caught 2; I caught 3. Everyone got some action, thank goodness. For the longest time Meagan had not caught anything -- that's the way it goes in fishing -- but eventually pulled in the first and only rock bass of the night and a catfish.

We couldn't have asked for more. We had a great time. We got back around 9:30 and Philip had already arrived -- everyone was gathered in the kitchen. I took over the kitchen and everyone moved to the living room. I then cleaned fish until after 11pm. Everyone was going to bed at this point. Now I know what it was like for my Dad -- filleting fish all night while everyone else went off somewhere else.

Catfish ... yucch, yucch, yucch ... but I got them cleaned, harvesting as much meat as possible. The catfish and crappie produced another 1 pound 10 oz of meat. What a night.

Still wide awake as everyone headed off, I grabbed a beer and joined Gavin & Kyle and two girls (don't know where they were) at Gavin's fire. Jason apparently was drifting watching a movie but I didn't check inside. I chatted with Kyle about his new mountain bike, drank my beer and made it back home without tripping over the tree roots in the dark. Of course Gavin shining the flashlight in my direction helped.

Back home, I had a shower. My hands still smell of fish this morning.

I have to decide whether to bike today or tomorrow. I'll check the weather in a minute and make that call. I have to go out one of the two days. The Granite Anvil looms ...