July 8, 2009

Yesterday we went into Dryden. We left around 10am and didn’t get home until about 4:30pm. Mom bought me a Tilley for my birthday and Dad was mad at her because they are so expensive. We had to listen to his Tilley jokes all through lunch at the bakery which was okay but not really worth the price. Dad and I got a chicken wrap that was dry and they costed $8. At Canadian Tire Mom bought Scott a bunch of fishing stuff for his birthday. Dad found a $10 imitation Tilley hat and Mom got a new pink visor. It was a long day. When we got home Dad and Scott fixed the window pane – well sort of. They aren’t done yet but it is in the window. I hope a strong wind doesn’t come along. Then Mom and Dad took a nap while I reheated up soup from last night and Scott worked on stringing his new birthday pole. After dinner we headed out to the spot that Richard and Dale caught a 25 & 27 inch walleye in after we left yesterday. We were all dressed in our new hats. Dad and Scott had new $34.99 poles that they got for $10 and we had our chartreuse jigs. We were ready to catch dinner!! We hadn’t even had a bite when Richard and Dale showed up. I was the first one to get a bite. I had caught a northern. Dale caught a small northern and then Richard caught a small northern. When he threw it in a seagull snagged it and was fighting it and we were watching the battle positive that the northern would get away when all of the sudden the seagull gulped the entire live northern down hole!! It was incredible!! We watched him try to fly away but he didn’t go very far. He kept flicking his tail feathers and would kind of jump every once in a while. We wondered how long the northern would stay alive in there. Then I caught two small walleye so we got distracted. When we went to check on the seagull again we couldn’t find him so we aren’t sure what happened to him. Mom was still worried about him when we got back and were in the cabin that night. I’m pretty sure the northern just took a big jump and drug him under with him!  Then Mom caught about 4-5 small walleye. We were having a wonderful time. Mom and I were mocking the guys giving them fishing advice that they always “yell” at us. Then we were riling Dad because he told me that he would be in his grave before he would spend $70 on a hat. So I was telling him that when he died I was going to use my inheritance money to buy him a Tilley and bury him in it but then I remembered that wanted to be cremated so then I told him I was going to buy one and put it on top of his urn. Mom and I were laughing so hard we were bent over with tears coming over our eyes. I think that Richard and Dale thought we were a little nuts but we were the ones catching fish! After that Dad finally caught a couple. Then Mom caught a perch and a couple more walleye. She was using Dad’s ultralight pole and kept talking about how awesome it was because it didn’t hurt her arm and shoulders. Then Scott finally caught one! Then we were all catching but we ran out of minnows. As Richard and Dale were leaving I caught the biggest of the walleye – a 14 incher. Dad put some plastic wormy thing on his once his minnow was gone. Mom lost hers on a bite and then put a fake minnow on. At one point Mom got her line stuck in some rocks and Dale yelled not to pull the plug he didn’t want to walk home. I didn’t get it and Scott had to explain to me that he didn’t want her to pull out the rock and drain the lake. I laughed really hard then! Then Mom said she didn’t get it yet so Scott was ready to explain it to her but what she meant was that she hadn’t gotten it unhooked yet. We all busted out laughing again. Scott caught another small walleye and was fishing with a minnow head. Scott caught another walleye with his minnow head and didn’t even lose it. Dad announced that we had three minutes before the sun went down and that he was going to go through the hole one more time. I had a bite but lost my minnow. Just at that moment Dad caught something big. We all reeled in and watched in anticipation. It really fought and our first view of it we thought it was mammoth. It had a big ole mouth and a scary toothy smile. Dad fought it for a while and one time it even flipped way up in the air. When he finally got it up Scott snagged it with his glow in the dark lip grippers and measured it. It turned out to be a 27 ½ inch northern. Then we headed home and Dad and Scott filleted 5 of the walleye on the dock in the dark with Mom and I swatting mosquitoes off of them the whole time. I took a bath during that time and Dad and Scott took one after they were finished. By the time we got everything back up to the cabin it was after 10pm so we all headed to bed.