June 2014

Ahhhh, June - long days, good weather and summer break approaching. :-) It was a good month with one downside - we ended up on strike during the last two weeks! :-(

Darrell, my dad and me at the Father's Day Show n' Shine

Julie, Lucas, Alison, my dad, Wendy and Darrell

Sure," Ralph said, "you can bunk in my trailer." "OK if I bring Sadie?" I said. "You bet", said Ralph, "I'm bringing my Sadie, too." And so Ralph and I made plans to attend the Link Lake Fish-Out together with our Sadies - Sadie One - Ralph's Golden Retriever, and Sadie Two - our Sadie.

When I arrived at Link Lake Ralph had already been there for a day and I discovered that he only had his float tube with him. Sadie One was relegated to the beach while Ralph was out fishing. "Let's both fish in my boat with the Sadies so they don't have to stay on shore", I offered. Ralph replied, "Sadie's never been in a boat." "She'll be fine" was my response. I spoke too soon...

We'd only had Sadie Two for a couple of months at the time of the fish-out, and she had been in my boat with me a couple of times - her first rides in a boat as far as I knew. She was relaxed in the boat and she couldn't care less about me fishing or catching; she slept most of the time. Sadie One, on the other hand, was highly interested in the fish, getting very excited whenever one of us hooked one. Here are a few photographs to illustrate:

The two Sadies meet

They had a great time together!

Ralph going for a cruise on the outboard picnic table

Going for a boat ride!

Ralph on Link Lake

The Sadies highly interested in Ralph's fish. Ralph is holding Sadie One back.
Can you read his lips? "Nooooo!" :-)

Yup, she went in and she got one! This fish was still on my line.

Ralph and I also fished Hatheume Lake one weekend.

Nice little Hatheume rainbow

Ralph got a nice one!

One June weekend Wendy and I tried Heffley lake for the first time. As you can see, the trout were eating small green chironomids!

Heffley Lake rainbow

Limeys!

During the last couple of weeks of June I was walking the picket line every day. One day, after my shift, I decided to make lemonade from lemons and I went up and fished Gardom Lake for only my second time ever. It was worth the trip!

Gardom Lake chironomid-eating rainbow

Fat Gardom Lake Fraser Valley rainbow

Nice Gardom Lake Pennask-strain rainbow

One weekend at Tunkwa we arrived to find some owl babies hanging out in a tree near our trailers. They fledged and flew off soon after this photo was captured.

Fledgling owl at Tunkwa

The end of June brought Golden Friday, so we celebrated with some tasty treats... :-)

May, 2014

I'm catching up! 'Only six months behind now...

May brought a big event - Alison graduated from Emily Carr University of Art & Design! Yet another reason love spring. The fish are waking up and I even caught a few, I was able to get my school flyfishing club out for a couple of fishing trips, Alison and Lucas met Sadie, and so did Barry and Marie Solieil and their pups Gadget and Pippi. 'Twas a good month!

Greeting us as we arrived at the UBC Chan Centre for the Emily Carr Convocation

The Chan Centre was a great venue for the convocation ceremony

Here's Alison receiving her degree!

Proud parents with Alison Woodward, B.F.A.

After the convocation we went and enjoyed the grad art show.
This is the caption for Alison's piece.

Papercut mastery

The future Mr. and Mrs.

Well done, Alison!

Some of the gang at our first SMS Flyfishing Club fish-out of the year.
We fished Hall Rd pond, stocked with catchables for kids by GoFishBC.

Fish on!

Sophia's first time fishing!

Evan and his dad

Sometimes tangles happen...

Success!

The gang lined up at our second fish-out at Shannon Lake.

I even managed to get out and fish a bit.
This one was caught in Zipperlip Lake. Gotta love that Moby net!

Another one from Zipperlip. Amazingly, Sadie's not trying to eat it!

They are slippery devils... ;-)

Bill in his snazzy new Smith Brothers pram

Marie Soleil introducing Sadie to Pippi and Gadget.
Treats kept their attention!

Alison and Lucas meeting Sadie.

April 2014

 Yes, I am officially the least conscientious blogger on Earth....

Oh well, here are a few photos to start getting up-to-date.

Near the end of March we adopted a new family member - Sadie! She's our beautiful 2 year-old female Yellow Lab, and as you can see in the photos she settled in pretty fast!

Sadie's first walk near Mission Creek with Wendy and me

She likes the couch!

And she loves to cuddle

I made my annual early season trip down to Sawmill Lake to shake out the shack nasties (although the trip to the Methow helped a lot with that!).

First still water fish of the season

A fish to justify my Moby Whale a little...

After a couple of years waiting for my neighbour who promised to remove a stump beside our driveway, and I finally got tired of waiting and decided to take care of it myself. Thank goodness for pickups with low-range 4WD and a strong rope!

Almost out!

Gone!

One day we were over at Alison's future in-laws, the Belgroves, and we all had a go with Darrell's pellet gun. We even hit something, eventually...

Lucas helps Alison take her first shots

Barry taking a bead

Even Wendy gave it a go!

Some more Sadie pix. She was great during her first boat ride, but not so much on the drive to the lake - she expelled her breakfast into the backseat and half-filled the cubbyhole on the door with recently eaten dog food. Yuck! No pix, though. She showed us what she does when she gets bored, too.

First boat ride

Near the end of April Trout Waters puts on their Customer Appreciation Days. This year I had the pleasure of representing Sage, Rio and Redington as a pro-staffer for RB Sales. As usual it was a fun day capped off by a great meal at Olympia Greek Taverna, complete with belly dancer.

Don Chatwin, owner of Moby Nets, chats with the Shimano rep

Savas was busy at the till!

Nick capturing some Facebook fodder

Will tying up one of his Atlantic Salmon fly masterpieces

An example of Will's prowess

Try as he might to be inconspicuous, Don couldn't escape...

All in all, it was a pretty good April!

Cheers! KW