First Fish 2008 Season

I had a great time Saturday. My wife and the two of our children who still live at home went to visit my daughter and grandson in Tacoma and my buddy Shawn asked if I wanted to go to the lake and go fishing in his boat. I was really excited. I have never been out on a fishing boat in a lake. I went out in the salt a few years back with my brother Bob, but that is another thing altogether.

By the time I got out to Lacamas Lake he already had the boat in the water. The lake was a little low and he asked me, "Where to?" I do not know, but I had read a few reports on www.washingtonlakes.com and they were catching them at the other end of the lake, where the creek enters the lake. We had a little bit of trouble with the water being so low we almost run aground. There were some other boats and we were trying to follow their path to get through. One lady told us there was an island that would "sneak up on your a**" we watched for that!

When we got to the other end of the lake there were so boaters trolling...we did not want to troll. They were not catching anything anyway. There was one boat catching them on worms so we tried that, well I tried that. Shawn wanted to use a spinner, so he tied on a spinner with rainbow colors and he caught the first fish about a 12-13" rainbow. I did not have the color of lure he did so I tied on a small gold color kastmaster. I caught a rainbow that was 13 ounces and 14" long. I used my new digital scale...a fun toy! We both caught one more in the three hours or so we were out. I had two get away one right at the boat due to a lack of net and one that jumped clean out of the water ten feet from the boat and spit the hook. The one I brought home for my delicious dinner was about 11 ounces and 11" long.

I have been growing my beard since I bought my new license on April first and told everyone I would not shave until I caught my first fish of the season. It has been very cold this spring and I was out of commission for two weeks because of cancer surgery, but I am bald faced now (not in the picture, because I had to go home and shave).