Weekend update

I got some errands taken care of this weekend. I got the pontoon cover picked up from the canvas shop. They had resewn the canvas for me. I also picked up the van from the shop. It had been fixed from hitting the deer. I also rolled a bunch of coins and cashed them in for the first time since college. That will give us an extra 450.00 for vacation money.

Nothing else really happened Friday night or Saturday. I had a few drinks Saturday night with our alternate for our tournaments. I was feeling pretty good after the first beer and a half. I was walking to the restroom and almost knocked over a table as I was already stumbling. I had several more beers then ate some food and lost my buzz completely. I had one more beer between midnight and 2:30 when the bar closed and it was hard to get it down.

Sunday I got up pretty early and watched some t.v. I was feeling stir crazy sitting around the house and needed to get out. Mizike got off early and we headed to a pond in the city to try it out. I had 2 bites on a rubber worm right next to the bank at my feet. The second bite was on the next cast after my first bite and when I set the hook there was a pretty decent swirl but I missed the hookset.

Mizike got bored pretty quickly and wanted to try a different pond. We went to the other pond we have had some luck at and they have posted it no tresspassing so we headed home and caught the crap out of bluegills in the creek behind my house.

I fried up some crappie for supper then we shot off a couple fireworks. After that we broke out Rapala fishing for the Wii. I had gotten it and the fishing rod for father's day. It is a pretty awesome game. Mostly because of the use of the pole and being able to set the hook and reel in the fish. The graphics were o.k. and I think the tournament style games are better but I really liked the actual feel of having a rod instead of just a controller. It is more realistic than some of the other games and is a little challenging to catch the bigger fish. We'll see how it is as we advance through the game. This is just my initial impression.

The best part was we had set the ottoman in front of the t.v. to sit on. Mizike went to set the hook on one fish and as he pulled back he leaned and almost fell off the back side of the ottoman. Needless to say the fish was hooked.

I have a couple more days of work left today then it's vacation time. The couple that is buying the pontoon is picking it up Wednesday so I will have my check then. All I will have to do after that is pack for the trip, and help clean the house. My wife always has to leave with a clean house.

It sounds like Mizike and his girlfriend are going to drive up to Niagara Falls to camp with us for the first weekend. That should be pretty fun. My wife's mother was going to come with us on vacation but she decided not to go. I kind of like the idea of just my wife and kids and me going, that way we can do whatever we want. If we see a light house or something interesting to check out we can stop, or if something we have planned does not look to great we can keep going.

It seems like I just got back from a week off in Kansas and already I'm ready for vacation again.

Weekend Overview

This weekend the girls wanted to do something other than fishing so Mizike and I did what was needed and allowed the girls to plan the weekend.

Friday evening we watched some movies and had Chinese food. About 11:00 we started drinking for some reason. Mizike got home shortly after that and we finished watching Yes Man and played some Karaoke on the PS2 until 4 a.m. We were up around 10:00 with the kids. The girls wanted to hike at hocking hills. We made it down there around 1:00 and walked around the flea market for a while. I found a gift for my mother. After that, we headed to Old Man's Cave. We took a short hike around the cave and by the time we got back to the beginning everybody was worn out. Could have been from the festivities the evening before. We ate ice cream then headed back home.

I had to return the movies to Redbox so Mizike and his girlfriend rode with me. We stopped at the Liquor store and picked up a few bottles then went to a couple of game stores. We got a Rayman game for the Wii that turned out to be pretty fun. We played that into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday I got up as Dad was calling. He was overly excited. He told me that he had just landed a 27 inch 6 1/2 pound walleye at a lake in Kansas. He was jigging for crappie with a 3 1/2 foot ultralight pole with 4 pound test and had the monster hit. He battled with it for quite a while. It had him hung up in trees twice before he finally got it to the boat to net it. He had thought he had hooked into a Wiper or a Catfish. Then as it got close to the boat he saw the white dot on its tail and realized he had a walleye.

It's not to often you get a fish like that. Especially this time of year. A couple months ago that fish would have went 8 pounds easy. I have never gotten one that big in the boat. I've had 2 up to the boat before they got off. Dad is a very good fisherman though and has bagged a few monsters. I know he has caught 2 walleye over 8 pounds.

My wife and I were going to go to the zoo but she decided to clean the house a little instead. After Dad's call I couldn't take it any longer. I grabbed my extendable pen size pole a small size 12 dry fly hook, a split shot, bobber and some worms and went down on the creek behind my house. It is a city watershed but looks like a small creek. I had never fished it but knew there was some decent sized creek chubs in there.

Mizike looked at me like I was crazy. I told him I would be back inside in just a minute when I caught the first one to show him you could catch fish back there. I dropped a worm down next to the shore and bam I had a bite. I lifted out a small bream. I ran inside and showed Mizike. He was surprised I caught something. I went back down and attached my bobber about a foot above the hook and cast out into the pool. As soon as it hit the bobber went under and took off. I realed in a 6 inch creek chub. It was fat. I ran that one back inside and Mizike got a look on his face that he wanted to go down too. He got the look from his girlfriend that said, if you do you will be sleeping on the couch, so he stayed inside.

I walked back down and caught a 6 inch shiner, another smaller creek chub, more bream and a decent sized bluegill. I saw some fish at a log Jam a little ways down. They looked big enough to be bass. I couldn't walk the shoreline due to the side of the water I was on had washed the bank away and there was a steep 10 foot cliff between me and the jam. I decided to go around and come in on the back side of the log jam.

I walked through the woods down a deer trail until I came to the water on the other side then followed the bank back to the log jam. The woods are covered in briars and brush. I had to make myself small and pretty much crawl through the debree until I reached the log jam. Once I got there I dropped my piece of worm in 2 spots before a fish stole it. Right after that I saw 3 large bluegill swimming around taunting me. I had not brought any more worm.

I decided that the way I came in was not great so I would go up the embankment to get to the deer trail. I was pushing tangled brush out of my way as I made my way to the top. All of a sudden a thorny vine wrapped around my head and all of the thorns stabbed into my skull at the same time from ear to ear. I was stuck for a second or 2. I reached up and peeled the thorns out of my head and into my hand at the same time. By the time I got out of the 20 foot section I walked through I was scraped and scratched from head to toe.

I went back inside and played Wii then took a nap. My backyard had turned into one of my greater adventures so far this year. At some point this summer I would like to wade and fish one of the rivers going through town. I also want to rent a canoe south of town and float fish. I have been wanting to do both and think I will this summer.