Adventures of Johnny United: Two Lakes: Different Results

Friday, the 13th: Lake #1

WizTech and I left SacTown to get to this lake nearby. By the time we arrived, there were already two kayaks in the water. We put our canoe in and trolled one time around the lake. No takers! One of the guys in the kayaks told us that he was there before sunrise trying a bunch of techniques, including fly fishing, but no hits either! We were having doubt about whether this lake was stocked recently with rainbow trout according to the Dept. of Fish & Wildlife website. Then the thought occurred to us that maybe DOFW has not stocked yet! So we decided to fish some more in hope that the trout plant truck may stop by in the middle of our fishing trip. No such luck.

As a matter of fact, we decided to have an early lunch and wait on dry land and that's when it happened: the attack of the geese! It was Friday the 13th after all. I was sitting on a big boulder enjoying the beauty of the lake, when three geese started heading straight for me. At first, I thought it was cool that they were heading my way and that maybe they liked me. Soon my benign thoughts changed because they started barking or honking and gnarling their beaks at me. Man, were those teeth nasty! Those teeth were bigger than a big brown trout's teeth! They decided to charge at me and the leader wanted to find out what I taste like: big mistake! When the leader came and snapped at me, let's just say I am not the Founder of Võ Nam Chi for nothing!?! After that incident, the geese kept their distance from me for the rest of the day :-)

On the way out, we encountered a local fisherman who help stocked the fish. He said he help carried several five-gallon buckets down to the lake from the parking lot. The fish were around six to eight inches in length and there were at most 200 fish stocked for the entire lake. We left around 11:30 AM, skunk!

Fantastic view of the lake from our canoe.

Saturday, the 14th: Intermission

My baby brother got engaged and we were blessed to be there for the special occasion.

Congrats....

Sunday, the 15th: Lake #2

After Holy Mass, we decided to go on a day trip. It was around 10 AM. We got to the lake around 2 PM! Not good for fishing if you know anything about trout. With kids, you fish when you can. I setup three fishing poles for Mrs. Miracles and the Squad to fish while I scouted the lake with a Phoebe lure. It was a small lake. I passed by a local fisherman with his wife and baby. I tried to get some intel for fishing the lake. Unfortunately, the fisherman said although he lives around the corner from the lake, this was his first time fishing the lake. He had power bait on, but have not gotten any bites. I continued around the lake and casting every few yards apart. Finally, I am on the other side of the lake where the children can see me and started calling out to me. I waved back. All along I had discovered that I took the wrong ultra light fishing pole with me. This one had a defective reel with a broken drag! Half an hour's hike around the lake and a whole lot of casts, not a single bite. I didn't even see any fish following the lure in. Now, I was down to three last casts (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit). Before I let out my last cast, I thought I saw a bubble to my left where a kayak had just passed. Yes, there it was again. I did, I did see a bubble. Quickly, I cast the lure beyond the bubble and slowly retrieve it back. Mama mia! Fish on! The drag was screaming. I was at a lost of how to bring the fish in since the reel was broken. But patience won out. The fish tired after a while and I was able to beach it. It was a beauty! I ran all the way back to show the children proof that there were fish in the lake.

Like all fishermen, once we found the location of the fish, it's pretty much game over. All the time that I went around the lake, no one caught any fish including the fisherman on the kayak. So we hurriedly moved to where I saw the fish bubble and within an hour we landed another seven!!! Little "j" landed two; Master Fisherman landed the biggest fish; Monk landed one; Mrs. Miracles landed two; and I landed two. What tremendous blessing! I did not want to drive through the mountain in the dark so we picked up to go home. I told the couple with the cute baby to come and fish by our spot.