Well, just got back last night from the land where REO Speedwagon can be hear as background music in all the gas convenience stores, where the trucks and 5th wheels in the driveways are worth more than the owners mobile homes, and where powerbait rules the tackle shops.

It was hot! As you might have guessed. The water surface temp. was 76 degrees, daytime temps around upper 90's and 100's everyday. Usually it cools down quick there once the sun goes down, not this year. Rarely did we have enough wind to chop up the glass water, so therefore the boats ran constantly, pulling kids and adults alike, doing our best to leave our carbon footprint behind while on vacation. Off to the rope swings along the lake a minimum of 3 times per day with boats full of kids, and my friends and relatives who even though in their 60's some of them, still thought they were kids. It was a blast as usual. The water was pretty much perfect all week except for a two hour wind and lightning storm for skiing and wakeboarding. The fishing was ridiculous it was so good. It was so good that some of the friends and relatives who do not fish got licenses and fished. Tons of nice trout, bass, and some huge tiger muskies, none of the big muskies made it to the net however. For a lake, it is a perfect place. It is why in movies,tv, and books often the lake is the center piece. The scenery was as always beautiful with hills, mountains, and tall trees the background to the lake and sunrises and sunsets. Every possible hour that you could be awake was spent doing something. Largest trout was 25.5 inches caught by my nephew on a midnight excursion out on the lake. The bass were small like normal, but tons of them, pretty much a fish every two or three cast minumum, great for the catching sake. The tiger muskies are really getting huge. I had two huge ones on that just let go like a ling cod when brought to the dock, never had a big one on while in the boat. There was one that looked like the Lock Ness Monster. Several times a day he would pop up his head, about a foot and a half of it out of the water and just slowly cruise the water with his head out of the water. Sometimes he would roll just like the Lock Ness videos, and sometime he would slowly shake his head back and forth above the water. He was minumum 5 feet long and I believe when he is finally caught, the state record will go down big time. Doug, the owner of the "resort" we were at said many have tried to catch him, but so far, he has just been great entertainment value for the guests. Supposedly there are several in the lake that big. I've seen some monsters, and we became musky hunters while there, with rods and lures in boats and the dock ready for the next monster sighting, then we'd hurry out to try to get him, never did, but sure was fun. Though I still have a slight limp with my leg, I did water ski 4 times. I just couldn't resist the glass water. Cutting was kept to more of a carving. My 11 year old kid became a slalom skier, ditched the two skiis, and is now jumping pretty good on the wakeboard. My daughter, who got helped with a visible confidence boost from her soccer experience this year could not get enough action and was ready for anything. The days consisted of this, hearing the squeeky screen door open the morning, then the voice of, "uncle Richard, can we go fishing, or when are we gonna go innertubing, wakeboarding, etc. Then tying lines up on 4 or so rods, then sending some on their way to the docks to fish while the towing began. This went on all day, always kids fishing, always people doing something in the water, always on to the next thing. Big group dinners, where of course the fish was what I cooked. The fishing went into the night 2 or 3 in the morning on boats or the dock, taking 4 at a time, more than that was just too much chaos. I enjoy so many things, my fishing and "other" kinds of posts give you the idea, but, nothing is better than watching all your nieces, nephews, your own kids, and friends get a thrill out of catching all these fish, eating them, and getting up on a wakeboard or skiis. And then the thrill their parents have about it too. That is cool. It was sooo hot that from 7 am to midnight you where sweating. Beer could not be consumed fast enough to ever get a buzz with sweat dripping from you until you got in the water. Towels were not needed after a dip in the lake as the heat was an instant dry off. I rareley got time to myself for any fishing, but did have some. The fishing was so good that I experiminted on ways, techniques to fish. I tried Doc's technique of baiting a "busted" hook with a trailer hook behind to try to release more unharmed, it didn't work in the lake, need a river flow, it gill hooked too many. So a super quick hook set was the way to go for releasing fish, which left some in the water without ever being hooked. I caught one at 2 am on a white large moth I caught in the light at the dock, tossed it out there with a half of a white marshmellow to keep it on the top, and gulp it went down into the throat of a large trout. My neice caught one on a bare hook. My parents just got back from building houses for Katrina victims in the south, and brought back some cane poles, or bamboo poles for the kids to use for fun on the bass. I decided to annoy people on the dock and use a cane pole to catch a trout, and it worked. Pretty funny. The trout there are plentifull, big, some real big, and super tasty with their reddish orange meat. They must eat well. Their were over 60 people in our group. I saw a guy and his daughter on the fishing dock one night casting theie Zebco push button reels and zebco rods right side up, then turning them over and reeling them in upside down, pretty funny, but the daughter caught a two pound trout, reel doing that famous Zebco ziiiip, ziiiiiip, sound and the fish pulled on the drag. People laughed at our long leaders agian this year, until we were catching fish pretty much every cast. I had a chartruse green power bait stain on my finger all week. Even those who never catch fish with their 15 pound, 6" leaders were catching them, usually while reeling their lines in. Topped it off with a drive home over the north cascade highway.

On a side note: If you are a Harley rider, and you are visiting a tourist town (Winthrop) and it is 99 degrees, if you are wearing your full black leather get up while walking around town so we all can see that you are a Harely rider, you are NOT that cool.

If you are a woman, wearing a sundress while riding on or driving anything with two wheels on a 99 degree day, you ARE cool.

Here is some pics.

The cabins and 6 limits for the kids.


What going to the lake is about.


The morning view


Heading to the rope swing





Going night fishing...



Dinner is about to get cleaned. All the kids loved cleaning fish.


While bass fishing, this deer decided to take a swim.


More to come in a bit, gotta upload more pics.