October, 2013

October was, amazingly enough, a pretty busy month fishing-wise. Wendy and I attended the FlyBC Fall Fish-In at Roche Lake, and we also took our camper down to the Methow Valley for a weekend getaway to celebrate Wendy's birthday. It happened to be opening weekend for steelhead on the Methow, too, which was convenient. ;-) I made a couple more solo trips to the Methow and a trip to the Thompson, too. Until we stayed home to finish our deck, I don't think I'd been home for a weekend since June!

We're sure enjoying having a camper again. Roche Lake FlyBC Fall Fish-In.

It was fun to find some large trout feeding in shallow water.
This 8+ year old Pennask AF3n was 250mm when tagged on May 15, 2007.

Same fish as above. I released to hopefully grow even bigger.

Another nice Roche Lake fish.
Note the Moby Whale net - handy to have when catching large-ish fish.

Nice pink camo hat!

The gang at the pot luck.

No steelhead for me at the Thompson. There was sure lots of this stuff, though!

Leaves in three, let it be!

They named a road after me! :-)

Wendy and I finished the railings on our new deck
during our first weekend home since June.

Looks good, doesn't it?

Dawn in the Methow Valley near McFarland Creek.

Getting up early paid off!

Fishing the tailout of a nice pool.

Beautiful fall weather in the Methow Valley.

Look at those colours!

Nice little bull trout.

The Shafer Museum is worth a look if you find yourself in Winthrop, WA.

Enjoying the late evening sun at Pine Near RV Park in Winthrop,
right across the street from the Shafer Museum.

These guys are all over the place in the Methow Valley.

Shafer Museum

Looking downstream at Twisp, WA.

This chinook took the since egg!

Another steelhead to hand.

Orchards for as far as you can see in the Okanogan Country, Washington.

September, 2013

Ah, September, a bittersweet month. It means the end of summer, back to work and back to weekends only at Tunkwa, but it's also the month of my birthday, (usually) great weather and the onset of fall, a very nice time of year.

We came home to a very nice treat - a new deck! Jimmy, his pal Ron and my step-brother Warren did us a huge favour by tearing apart our old deck and rebuilding it for us. Sweet!

We also enjoyed Lee's annual fishing derby at Tunkwa and Wendy and I made it down to the Fraser Valley to visit Don and Judy, and Don and I met Gary at the Vedder to do some combat fishing for pinks.

Jimmy showing off our new deck.

Happy Birthday to me!

Gary tight to a pink salmon on the Vedder

A clean pink on the fly - fair and square, too!

Don waiting for a grab. He didn't have to wait long!

The Tunkwa gang at Lee's Annual fishing derby

Alison at Art Battle. She painted that in about 20 minutes!

Alison did her first art multiple through Von Zos.

An annual visit near our front door in September.

August, 2013

August saw the continuation of the Skeena trip with Hu & Jack. We were joined by Warren and Jim for the last couple of days of the Hu/Jack/Ken portion of the trip. Hu and I head back south and the last week is Jack/Jim/Warren. We caught all sorts of pinks and sockeye, several coho and the odd steelhead. Unfortunately, sockeye were closed to retention this year, and the Fisheries officers were on the river checking. We were checked at a remote bar one day by DFO guys who arrived by jetboat. That was a first for me.

Kye and I entered the annual Trojan Pond fundraiser for the Royal Inland Hospital for the first time. My goal was to not get skunked, and I achieved my goal! I actually hooked a few fish and landed several. It was not exactly relaxing fishing, though. One feels a lot of pressure to get fish. Someone else, whose name shall go unmentioned, said he "only cared about beating Woody". I think he jinxed himself, 'cuz he got skunked... :-)

Happily, Alison made it up to Tunkwa for a short visit and we got out fishng again. Her timing was excellent - we fished a nearby lake and the fishing was great. We had all sorts of double headers, and Alison actually mentioned that her arms were getting tired!

Hu tight to a fish on the Skeena.

A panorama of the Skeena from midstream at China Bar.

The lads waiting for a grab near Usk.

Bella, a beautiful little young Lab we met at China Bar one day.

Jack just can't take the excitement of bar fishing.

Hu belts one out.

A nice, clean sockeye. Too bad we couldn't keep it.

One of the steelhead I landed.

Hu's nice steelhead.

A bunch of pinks.

I even deployed the single-hander fot a changed of pace.

The lads washing up after a dee-licious meal we had together.

I was expecting to see the ladies from Tunkwa Height go by...

Tunkwa Lake Resort, our summer digs.

A snake from Huestis Pit.

This Red Darner decided to hang out on me one day.

Kye with a nice Huestis Pit fish.

I managed the odd one out of Huestis Pit, too.

The boys at the Trojan Pond Derby, getting an early start on breakfast. Look at those game faces.

Don got one!

Some late summer Jacko late action.

Damselflies like to rest on my hand while they, well, you know...

Brookies are pretty!

Underwater shot before release.

One of the many double-headers landed by Alison and I.

Alison with a nice rainbow.