Adventures of Johnny United: July 2016

Sunday, 24 JUL 2016 - Where are we?

We were considering heading South to the Grand Canyon or North to Montana for this year's Fun Anniversary Trip (FAT 2016). The North won out this year. So we packed and headed North. We left SacTown at 10:30 AM and drove until it was dark and called the nearest hotel for rates. We were blessed with a room for $85 a night that can accommodate all of us....

We are on vacation and there is no sleeping curfew.

At around 9:30 PM: Pretty comfy for six.

Monday, 26 JUL 2016 - Montana, here we come.

We proceeded across into Mountain Time Zone in Idaho and loss an hour :-( However, we made many stops by the usual tourist places to enjoy the view and rest. This time I noticed that fly fishing is big time in Idaho as well. We even came into a Walmart with its own Fly Shop: amazing!

Stopped by this vista point for lunch.

We needed a break from driving.

Rest area had no shaded areas, probably 90 degrees....

Emigrant Trails

Oregon Trail passing through Idaho.

Now, I've visited all the Walmarts :-)

Crazy, right?

This Walmart is located in Idaho.

Locally tied flies?!?

We made it to Montana by 7 PM.

Tuesday, 27 JUL 2016 - Scouting.

We decided to do the local scenes and visited as many places as possible. It appeared as if everyone in Montana knows how to use a drift boat and fly fishes; at every corner, there is a fishing access sign; and, all the parks in Montana are named Sacajawea Park :-)

Lots of drift boats at this location.

Sacajawea statue in Sacajawea Park.

Cool East meets West mural.

The original in & out burger....

Back in time prices...

Having a picnic.

Peace.

The art of sleeping ;-)

Preparation for Radiological Tech?

Rail road museum.

All aboard!

Got a chance to visit Big Sky.

Got useful maps here.

We should have signs like this in Cali....

Wednesday, 27 JUL 2016 - A River Runs Through It.

The night before I had purchased a 2-day fishing license to fish in Montana.

Super duper blessed to be able to fish at Yellowstone River in Livingston, MT, where the movie "A River Runs Through It" was filmed. This is the home of fly fishing legend, Dan Bailey. I walked through his shop and looked at all the neat fly fishing stuff. Although I am not a fly fisherman, I truly appreciate the art of fly fishing and those who have fallen in love with it. One day, I may pick up fly fishing myself....

I walked inside Dan Bailey's fly shop!

For now, I am just happy to be using the Z! By the way, the Z-Ray is back!!! It is made by Zona Lures. Here is the website: http://www.zraylures.com/

I woke up super early to get to the fishing hole and got there at 4:50 AM. I do not like to fish unless I can see with my naked eyes, which indicate to me that it is legal fishing time of one hour before sunrise. At this location, according to the Internet, sunrise was to be at 6:03 AM. I believe it was more like 7 AM because I couldn't see anything until around 6 AM and that was when I headed towards the river to fish.

It was my third cast, and I hit a small trout! It did all kinds of acrobatics, laughed at me, and shook off the hook while airborne. It felt pretty heavy for a small trout! Then I proceeded a little farther down stream after every few casts. Another ten minutes later, I hit something big because my drag screamed: "Zip, zip...." Just as quick, the fish let go. Before the half hour of fishing was up, I hit another fish and this time I managed to land it! Let's just say that I should have purchased a bigger landing net :-) I put together a video for your enjoyment:

I was back to the hotel before Mrs. Miracles and the children knew that I was missing. I woke them up and we all went down for the provided breakfast.

Yummy to the tummy.

More fun....

Lots of small towns....

Another Sacajawea Park.

More fishing access.

Swimming pool to ourselves.

Thursday, 28 JUL 2016 - Heading back to Cali.

Since I purchased a 2-day fishing license, I wanted to fish the Gallatin River running through Big Sky, Montana, on the way back to Cali. It was not meant to be. I followed my GPS which took me home by another route. Thus I got to witness the beauty of the Madison River along Montana highway 287. What awesome sights!!! I followed one of the fishing access sign and was taken to what I had thought to be a remote area. Was I wrong. By the time I got to the Madison River, there were about 50 vehicles with boat trailers parked.... Wow!!! This meant that there would be a lot of drift boats stopping by sometime during the day. One person owning a private business to pick up boats told me that she and her husband shuttled about 60 to 80 drift boats a day!!!

More fishing access.

Looks the same, but different fishing location.

Look at all the drift boat trailers.

Same parking lot with more drift boat trailers.

Madison River.

On the way out of the hotel, we ran into a bunch of classic cars. What a trip!

Very cool looking car.

Must be a car show....

Here's a summary picture of what Mrs. Miracles (my lovely, awesome, fantastic wife of 27 years) thinks of Montana, Big Sky Country.

Two thumbs way up!

We eventually made it back to the North side of Nevada for the night. We stayed at the same place on Sunday night, in the same room, for the same price: double blessings!

Friday, 29 JUL 2016 - Concluding Fun Anniversary Trip 2016.

We made it back home safely around 10 PM. Thanks be to God.

Montana is definitely a fun place to visit, especially for fly fishermen. Its small towns, clean air, mountainous terrains, and waterways are fabulous! There is NO SALES TAX in Montana!!!

I had a chance to visit lots of fishing outlets along the way to Montana and back. I did make a few purchases too ;-)

JU was here :-)

Couldn't pass up some of these things....

Finally, FAT can't be completed without a trip down memory lane.

May God bless you all.

Just like that, Annual Camping Trip came and went!

The night before ACT 2016

Would these work?

Do we have enough poles?

Sunday, July 17th - Night fishing or night hiking?

We arrived on Sunday around 4 PM and setup camp. The boys pumped up the three inflatable boats that we brought with us and found out that one had a leak and was not operational. So we were down to two boats.

The lake is still beautiful.

Setup and breakdown are the roughest part of camping.

What do we do now?

Were we camping or "glamping"? After setup, we had pizza and salad for dinner :-) We were definitely glamping!

Around 7:30 PM, I decided to take out the inflatable boat by the white buoy (200 - 300 ft. from shore?) for a quick 5 casts of the Z and head back in. I paddled about 10 feet from shore and realized that I forgot my life jacket. Additionally, I remembered that 3 boys ages 12 through 16 just pumped up the boat and I did not check to make sure everything was secured. Thus, I started to paddle like mad towards shore. Unfortunately, the wind picked up and I found myself further from shore and heading towards the dam! It was getting darker and the boat was not sinking, which gave me comfort that all the valves were secured. At that point, I forgot about fishing and started thinking, "How the heck am I going to get back to shore?"

I decided to, instead of fighting against the wind, I would go with the wind (a note to my Võ Nam Chi students). Quickly, I found myself not quite at the dam, but at least at shore on the opposite side of the lake! Thanks be to God the moon was out because I realized I also forgot my flash lights. Now in the dark, with boat, fishing pole and net in tow, I made my own trail by trampling on whatever underneath to try to make it to the dirt road I knew was nearby due East. I eventually made it to the dirt road where I ditched my gear and hiked a little more than a mile back to camp. WizTech gave me a ride to pick up my gear and that was how we determine how far I hiked by using the speedometer readings. What a relief!

Lesson learned: Excitement for fishing can sometimes put us in a potentially dangerous situation.

Recommendation: Pray and remain calm! Do not use an inflatable boat in windy condition unless you pre-arrange for a ride back :-); don't forget your life jacket; don't forget your head lamp; and sometimes, it's better to go with the wind.

Monday, July 18th - What did you say?

In the AM, WizTech and I scouted the Carson River and was able to land a small trout.

Another victim of the Z!

We came back to camp before 8 AM for breakfast. Immediately the boys (Fishing Wonder and Master Fisherman) wanted to take the boats out. I told them they could after breakfast.

Around 10 AM, I shared my mishaps from the night before with them again for the third time. First, I told them to put their life jackets on. Then, I told them to try to paddle around in the cove so that the wind would not be very strong. Initially, they were thinking about using their own boat, but they decided on going together in one boat. The Monk asked them if they would like to tie a rope to the boat just in case they needed to be pulled in. They adamantly refused the rope and ascertained that they could row the boat together. Thus, I agreed to let them use the boat. I told them to remain calm if they could not control the boat and just let the wind push them ashore and I would come and get them. I then pushed them off.

Each boy was holding a row and paddled in opposite directions which caused the boat to float in a circle :-) They tried to coordinate their rows to no avail. While they were about ten feet from shore, I suggested that only one should row the boat at a time. This worked... that is, until the wind picked up. So I told them to row toward the West shore, they kept on going in the wrong direction. I told them not to panic. I would go put on my running shoes and meet them on the other side (the lake is about three miles around?). Anyway, I went to get the team to cheer them on while I ran around the West shore to be there for them when they arrived. I thought my lungs would explode, but I kept on. Fortunately, they were in the cove and the wind pushed them ashore quickly because by the time I ran out of gas, they were already standing and waiting for me. They were shaken up, but now understood the phrase: "You better listen to JU or something bad is gonna happen :-)" Thanks be to God for the experience and they were safe. They both had their life jackets on and at no times were in any real danger, only wounded pride.

How come we're moving in circles?

Ok, now we're moving....

After all the excitement, we packed a lunch and went to our favorite fishing spot at Silver Lake. We first went to buy a one-day fishing license for Ms. Will.

Miss Will: "Maybe, I should buy the chair too?"

Unlike last year, we did not catch any trout at Silver Lake this year.

Where oh where are the fish?

Forget about fishing, let's eat instead.

The water is too cold for a swim.

Silver Lake.

Can't see any fish.

At least, we have the beach to ourselves.

I'm gonna wet my feet.

May be not, it looks cold.

Let's eat some more, maybe the fish will get the message... not.

After an uneventful fishing day at Silver Lake, we stopped by Caples Lake. We landed two planters here.

Caples Lake, east shore.

We went back to camp for dinner.

After dinner, since the hot showers came with the camping package, some of us decided to use its privileges. The showers were a short distance from camp and we drove there; however, on the return, I opted to walk back. I used the scenic route back to camp instead of the shortest route. What a blessing! As I approached camp, I saw a lone figure hiding behind a bush fishing. I made my way over to get some "intel." Lo and behold, I got more than what I wanted. The man fishing at the time was the only one fishing in the lake as far as I could tell. He had two poles out. He showed me how to fish and what to use from the shore of the lake to be successful. As we were talking, the drag of the pole on his left screamed: "Fish on!" We could both tell it was a big fish by the way his rod bent. He was reeling and I was cheering. After a few minutes, he knew he would have to get his feet wet because the fish was working its way towards a bunch of weeds. With his rod high above his head and the line tight, he waded in the water to fight the fish. Eventually, the fish got tired and he was able to net it. What a beauty! It was an 18" FAT (big girth) rainbow. Then he asked if I wanted it? He taught me how to fish and gave me a fish too! Of course, I said, "YES!!!" Could I be more blessed?

Tuesday, July 19th - We finally figured it out!

Now that the secret had been passed down to me, I didn't have to go too far to catch breakfast. By breakfast time, I came back with four 12" hold overs.

Here's breakfast!

FREE fat trout from last night.

We took a day trip to Fallen Leaf Lake, but went by the dam instead of the boat ramp. We took a nice hike, but did not fish.

Very windy at Fallen Leaf Lake.

Hiking trail to the Taylor Creek dam.

We came back to camp and started fishing around 5 PM. Almost three hours later, not a single bite, so naturally all the children gave up on fishing and went to build a rock bridge. Who could blame them. Only I remained. I had one pole out and another I used the Thomas Buoyant 1/4 oz., single hook, gold color lure. Bam! As if there was a magic feeding time, I felt a tug on my lure and immediately set the hook. I could feel that it was a decent fish. It got all tangled up with one to the children's line as it came in. I stepped into the water to fight the fish, but I had no net with me. As it was near my feet, I tried to grab it, but it shook off the hook and head straight back to the deep. It was about a 12 incher. As I tried to untangled my lure with the line, I saw my other pole bobbled up and down. I waited until I was certain that the fish was on. I calmly called over "little j." "Set the hook and reel in!" I commanded. Yes, the fish was definitely hooked. I tried to get my camera out to video tape the moment because by now all the children gathered around and were cheering. little j was struggling, so Mrs. Miracles came by to help. "Forget about the video," she told me, "come and bring this fish in. It's too heavy!" I dropped everything, and came by with the net and took over. It did felt like a hog. I jumped into the water to make sure I would not lose the fish because of the weed. I held my pole high just like the way I saw the fisherman that landed the 2 pounder did the night before. Finally, I netted the fish. As long as I can remember, I was usually blessed with at least one trophy trout during the ACT. This trout qualified!

The annual trophy trout! Forget about the fisherman :-)

At night, we were treated to a spectacular moon rise by the camp fire.

My first witness of a moon rise.

Wednesday, July 20th - All the kids got some action!

Once again before breakfast, WizTech and I landed six fish: 5 rainbows and a cutthroat.

Definitely, not your "typical" catch! These are bigger than usual.

18 inch cutthroat!

WizTech bought a wader that failed and he used it as a trash container.

I used one of the inflatable boat to try and fish in the weeds on the south side of the lake; but before I was out too far, one of the chambers leaked. I jumped of the boat and waded in the weeds to fish. I managed one 12 incher with the same Thomas and lost it again near my feet because I did not have a net :-( Now, I was down to ONE functional boat.

Chilling after dinner.

Good company.

We see fish jumping

Do we really have this lake to ourselves?

The magic hour finally arrived and all the children were prepared. Yes, they did catch fish.

I'm so happy.

little j

My first fish.

My first fish too!

Master Fisherman

Fishing can be so fun!

Well now, we are all children of the Good Lord :-)

Thursday, July 21st - What happened?

I took a rest from taking pictures and just enjoyed the day. I didn't want to bore you with more fish pictures of the big ones that were caught :-)

Friday, July 22nd - Do you want to land a fish?

On our last day, we woke up everyone who had not caught a fish during the week, but wanted to catch one to go do a dark thirty run. As I said, everyone who WANTED to catch, caught!