River Day 05/19/2014

It was a busy time at the river this week.  Tim and I were the only ones (Rivertarians anyway) to make it down: Jay was under the weather and Ted was MIA (working?).  It was a nice afternoon/evening - temps around 70 and nothing but sunshine.

I brought a little lumber to add to the woodpile, but from the looks of things around camp, we won't need bring any wood for a while.  The area had some heavy rains over the last week and the river had risen nearly to the fire pit.  As usual, when it receded, lots of stuff to burn was left behind, including some fairly large logs.  We did keep a small fire going while we were there, but we didn't do any real debris pick up.

Tim and I fished for most of the time there, and between the 2 of us, we must have caught nearly 50 fish - we even caught a couple of real ones!  Last week we couldn't find helgies for bait anywhere, this week there was one under nearly every rock we turned over.  Guess they were left behind by the flood water.  I had stopped at the store in Piney View and bought a dozen (needlessly), and Freddy and a guy named Curtis gave us a bunch more.  There is a styrofoam container nearly full to the top of hellgrammites at the camp now.

While Tim and I were catching the "big ones", Wolf (aka/Uncle Si) came down carrying a walleye that Toby caught a few miles upriver.  The fish that he was carrying with a rope (not a stringer) was easily 30 inches long and probably went 15 pounds or so.  Shortly after that, the guys cleaned and cooked the fish.  Wolf came back with a plate loaded with fried pieces and some salsa for dipping.  Can we all say "Yummy!"?

All in all it was a busy place around the camp this week, with lots of visitors: Freddy (along with a volatile can), Wolf, Curtis (?), and Austin (baby daddy) Hix.  Always some great conversations when you have a mixed group.

Sorry the other regulars weren't able to make it this week, but it was a great time at the river.

River Day 05/12/2014

Thought I'd better squeeze in the River Day post from last week before we actually celebrate another one (today!).  Jay was out of town on vacation Monday, so it was Tim, Ted and I at the river.  After an early downpour, we had perfect weather as you can see in the photos; blue skies, low 80's.

Ted and I got down a little earlier than Tim and right after the rain stopped we broke out a mower and weed-eater and gave the camp its first trimming of the season. It wasn't cut as low as we'd have liked, but it was too high (and wet) to try to cut any lower.

After the mowing it was time for fishing.  Tim caught a couple right off the bat with a nightcrawler.  We looked under multiple rocks around the river bank but still couldn't find any helgies.  We'd just about given up on finding any when I turned over a rock about 30 yards away from the waterline and found the first one of the season (no award for that...yet).  Tim found one in the same area and we were able to catch a few, including a small-mouth bass.

For once we can't claim to have had the best fire on the river - we didn't even bother building one.  But if we had...