Here There Be Monsters...

Remember how people a long time ago were so ignorant and superstitious that they believed in sea monsters? What morons! But, then again, maybe we haven't advanced as far as we thought.

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These are all clearly bogus, and seriously, only a moron would believe they were real...except I met this guy once, and he's a real outdoors guy, you know, the kind of guy who ought to know, and he told me that he was over on Lake Chelan once just after ice out and....

Lake Report: I Guess My Work Here Is Finished

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I got to the early season trout lake for a little while late Saturday afternoon. All by myself. I didn't have canoe or float tube, but I had my 4-weight and my waders. So I waded in and shook the kinks out of the line. Fish were jumping and trollers were catching them, but I didn't have any takers in the brief time I was there. They seemed to be just beyond my reach.

But it was really quite lovely. I'm ready to get out there with the float tube.

Meanwhile, Isaiah went to a friend's house this afternoon with some of his AAU basketball teammates. The friend is the son of the coach, and they went to their house to do some work to earn some money to help pay for the expenses of the past season. And the coach owns and runs one of the resorts on the early season trout lake.

So Isaiah told me this evening that he went out in a canoe while he was there (some other boys went out in a row boat) and caught a fish.

That means both boys have caught a still water trout this season before their old man has.

I guess my work here is finished.

Another Scouting Trip

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You might remember these guys, Jeremiah and his friends Juan and Brian, and their little brother Fernando. They had some great days last summer fishing and swimming in the local warm water lake.

This evening they were excited to go back there on a little scouting expedition of their own. They found the whole east end ice free, a big change from when I passed by here just a day ago. And they were sure they were seeing fish, although I could never see them when they pointed them out to me.

They had gone with me to load up a bin of apple wood, something to get us through the last remaining cold nights. That took us right by the lake.

They knew they were going to get pizza as a reward for their good work, and they were excited about that, too. But they were more than willing to postpone pizza for a chance to "bond" again with the lake.

You know, I didn't strike these poses the other day when I checked out that early season trout lake. But I think I felt exactly the way they did this evening about all the fun ahead.