Opening Weekend for Fishing

This weekend we headed up to the cabin for Opening Day of fishing season. Rumors around the lake last summer were that this was 'the' weekend for the kids, with a fishing derby dedicated to them. So, over the last two weeks we stocked up on spinning gear and powerbait and headed up after our softball game on Friday. As advertised, the lake was buzzing even on Friday night as everyone anticipated the morning kick off.

I think we woke up around 5:30 to find boats already working the water. I got up and started getting things geared up, and Maddie emerged around 6:30. We talked with the locals who said that they stock the lake with about 1500 7-9in trout and about 150 brut stock (18-22in). The goal was to just catch something by Noon so we could enter in the derby. Needless to say, it was a bit slow for us newbies to this spinning game. Given our experience catching perch last summer, Maddie thought it would be as easy as casting and reeling them in. We did have 2 fish on but we couldnt land them. Papa J finally caught a 9 incher that got us eligible for the derby. When it got to 11:30 and we only had the 1 fish, we had to "borrow" one from the 16yr old neighbor girl for Kenzie. Lucky for Kenzie this was an 11 incher, which ended up getting her 3rd in the 0-5 age group! But, as you can see from the picture, she was more in to her Kit Kat! Check out the slide show for all the pics.

Here are a few individual ones. On Sunday we headed out in the boat and caught 3 fish..even Steph got one. You can see what the size is like. Before you push your nose up, check out the picture of a kid from Maddie's school (total coincidence that he was there), Hunter, who reeled in this 21 incher...Good enough for 1st place overall in the entire derby! Lastly, and the picture doesn't do it justice compared to in person, is a picture of an Osprey who just swooped down to catch a fish out of the lake. It is pretty cool to see this live. Great time had by all....looking forward to more weekends trying to catch the big one.