Family Fishing Trip

The first part of our vacation spree was spent on Birch Lake in Ontario.  My father fishes here once or twice a year and last Christmas announced that we were going on a family fishing trip.  Aside from our wedding, I think the last family vacation we took was probably 15 years ago.  After this summer, I really needed the get away!

The family vacation included my parents, my sister and her husband, my grandparents, and Rick and I.  We all piled into a Minnie Winnie and drove 12 hours to Ear Falls, Ontario.  We stayed with Kay Air Outfitters, and my dad has been staying with them for years.  Peter, the pilot and owner, was great.  Why is the pilot important  you ask?  We were staying at a true outpost.  We had to be flown in; there were no roads, no people, no bathroom.  But we did have electricity thanks to solar power and running lake water (gas heated) and the cabin was very nice.  And we had amazing scenery!

We arrived at the lake on Friday morning and fished until Tuesday morning.  We were out 10-12 hours a day in our group of 4 boats and didn't see anyone else on the lake the whole time we were there.  The lake is huge!  The weather was beautiful--didn't rain once! After a long day of fishing, Dad cleaned the fish and we all worked on supper.  After dishes were done we usually played games until we were tired.  And then it all started over the next day.

 Every day we had a new contest.  Day one was the first fish caught (Dad won that one), day two was first boat to catch two at once (Allyson and Chad), day three was most fish.  Dad was given a handicap--his count was halved since he's a professional.  Or at least better or luckier than the rest of us.  He caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 fish that day, but Mom won with 50 some.  Chad and I were neck and neck; I ended up with 35 fish that day.  The last day was the booby prize: the last person to catch a fish.  It took Rick 3 hours to catch a fish that morning!  The contests made it fun, even if the buy in was only a dollar.

I was proud of myself for baiting my own hooks and taking off my own fish.  I had never done that before; I had always had Dad do that for me.  I also learned how to tie on jigs--who knew I was such a closeted angler?

 All in all, it was a great trip.  We had a lot of fun and good quality bonding time.  Enjoy the photos, and hopefully I'll get to the European trip soon!