Day Twelve - Relaxing in Prince George!

Today was great as we didn't have to drive anywhere! I slept in late and spent the morning sharing stories with Uncle Jim. Yeah - I did more listening than talking but it was great!

Auntie Alice worked this morning once she got home and we ate dinner it was off to Shasta Lake for the last kick at the fishing can! Going into the day I was leading the fish count 4 - 0 (really it was five as I had successfully landed the other fish...you'll see why this is important later).

Shasta Lake is a pretty little lake with a nice picnic area and a cleared section to allow for fishing from the shore. The fishing started out fast with Alice catching and loosing the first fish of the day. She caught a number throughout the day and threw back more than anyone else. Uncle Jim caught the first big rainbow of the day but in the end dad would catch the largest, weighing in at just under 2 lbs. This is significant as it means that my 2 pounder is still the largest fish of trip! However, it took a long time for dad to catch any fish and as you can tell from his face in the picture on the right!!

We spent most of the afternoon drowning worms but just as we were getting ready to call it a day dad made a big switch. He started using Auntie Alice's rod and my wedding ring lure (had I known the name I probably wouldn't have bought the thing!!)...in a very short period of time dad had managed to catch 2 rainbow trout, 2 squaw fish, and 1 white fish....yup that adds up to 5 fish! I told you the one that got away was important to the overall count!! It really should be counted particularly since dad had to throw back 3 of his fish!!!!!

I learned a lot watching Auntie Alice fish - the process? Fish bites hook...fish is on the beach! I didn't know that fish could water ski and despite the descriptions of her fishing that I heard from Ab I wasn't really prepared for the spectacle! Even better I got to witness her play fish football - her technique of ensuring that the fish does not get back into the lake! The three pictures below show the sequence of her landing the fish, dropping it, and kicking it!

The day ended really well - dad was smiling and I was still talking to Alice despite the fact that she was conspiring to ensure dad caught more fish than me! Of course she and I had a great laugh as I tried to remove an out of control eyebrow hair (think "pluck") from dad's face...in stead of the hair being pulled out his face came along with the hair. Needless to say he wasn't all the happy but Alice and I were crying from laughter!!

As I write this Alice is sitting next to me trying to ensure that I up-date the fish count on the main page! There is just no chance of me slipping anything past her. Tomorrow we continue our journey back to the coast - we are not sure if we'll make it back to the island or take a two more days to make it back. Either way I'm sure it will continue to be a great adventure!