Fishing Tournament…Not Really

Today was the day to get the canoe on the water and try to catch some fish. We haven’t had much luck fishing on this trip and this looked like a nice place to catch some trout. We had the canoe in Pearrygin Lake by 7:45am.  This lake does not allow waterskiers/tubers/wakeboarders on the water until 9am and not after 6pm so it’s nice to have flat, calm water only broken by other fishermen, stand up paddleboarders, or canoe/kayakers, especially in a canoe.  If I told you this was the best morning of the trip, you would just roll your eyes and claim that I’ve said that every day.  So let me unfold it and you can decide how awesome it was.

We row over to our first fishing hole, cast out our lures, whammo, I catch a fish.  It’s a little rainbow trout, maybe 7-8″.  It always feels good to get the first fish as you know no matter what else happens, at least you aren’t gonna be skunked for the day.  We hear some crashing on the hillside and look up to see a fawn frolicking in the early morning sun.  Literally just hopping around and playing, spots and all.  We motor over to another little place near some trees right on the bank and see a bald eagle fly right out over us.  We notice that another bald eagle is sitting in the same tree and isn’t flying away, pretty cool!  We continue fishing (and catching) while scanning the trees and hills for other wildlife when Mark asks what is in the water.  Turns out to be 3 otters playing and rolling over each other and swimming around.  They didn’t like us being so close and one kept hissing at us, which I believe you can hear in the video.

Otters Playing in Pearrygin Lake from Mark Winland on Vimeo.

I caught another fish and announced that I had just caught my 3rd fish.  I didn’t know we were in a tournament until Mark said, well then it’s 3 to 1.  Hmm, now that it’s a competition, it’s on!  We went over to the far side of the lake and the fishing and catching continued.  They were all the same size, so no one got the biggest fish today.  Truth be told, it was like fishing in the hatchery nursery.  We saw 3 more deer pop out of the hills and head over to the water’s edge.  We decided this fishing was just too easy so we moved again.  Then we saw a couple small turtles swimming in the water.  Every time Mark had a fish on, it just so happened that I did too.  In less than 2 hours, the score was 13-6 and I was the victor!  (Play Olympic theme song here.)  We saw 6 deer, 3 otters, 2 bald eagles, and 2 turtles.  Pretty spectacular, huh?   The skiers were hitting the water and causing waves so we decided it was time to head in to town.

There was a small Farmers Market where we got some fresh corn on the cob and peaches and just enjoyed walking around the little park.  We were passing by a pizza place that a local had recommended.  They had an outdoor patio and they allowed dogs so Molly officially went to her first restaurant.  This is the second restaurant in WA where they put Trivial Pursuit cards at each table so while we waited, we asked each other trivia questions, which we suck at equally.  No tournament to be had there.  But we learned a few new things, none of which I can now recall.  The Genius edition may be as old as me so their current events felt like ancient history.  Anyway, it was a lovely way to spend a long lunch, lounging on the patio deck with pizza, trivia, and my little family.  I hadn’t noticed Molly in a while and thought she had finally laid down, when I looked around and realized she had actually fallen off the raised patio.  Thank God the ground was not farther away than her leash was long because I honestly can’t tell you how long she was down there.  She was just sitting there waiting and looking at me, like Mom I can’t get back up there.  Turns out she could with coaxing.  We had intended to go for an afternoon bike ride and then hit the lake again for some evening fishing, but the wind kept blowing until after dark.  To soothe ourselves of the disappointment, we headed to town for dinner.  We haven’t had satellite access in our RV because the campgrounds we are in have trees (which we want!) and our internet is nonexistent here.  Pretty much every campground Wi-Fi we’ve used is a joke, barely enough to send an email, so I haven’t seen any Olympics yet.  We headed to the local burger joint where TVs were promised.  The food must have been good because both the riverside patio and the indoor bar area with small TVs were already packed.  We headed across the street to Three Jacks Saloon.  My meal was edible, nothing to write home about.  Mark had bacon wrapped, sausage and beef meatloaf that was really good.  But the true gem was the homemade carrot cake.  She brought out one piece for us to share, and it took us 2 sittings to eat the whole thing. Soft, light, sweet, thick grated carrots you could actually see, little pineapple bits mixed in, the creamy perfect icing.  Oh my!  It was the tastiest treat we’ve had yet.  It made up for the fact that there were no TVs and no Olympics, it was that good.