The one that got away....

Well it's Thurs morning. I came to Denair, CA on Tues. (right outside Turlock, CA) and Tues night we went to Lake McClure with the boat. We stopped and got some bait and hot dogs for dinner (we had a small camping stove) and we were gone. We got to the lake at about 6:30 I think.... we put the boat in the water and there was some deer by the dock....I took some pictures but I don't know how they will look.... and right about now you are probably thinking "Renee has a digital camera why wouldn't she see the pictures?" Well here's the story about that... while driving up here to Denair I had my camera out and on my passenger seat so that during the drive I could take scenery pictures etc.... and I took a few, I also took a few when I was having lunch with some friends when I stopped to eat... well I got here and we got our stuff ready to go and I forgot to put my camera back in my purse... so at the bait shop I got one of the disposable cameras. So then because I only had the one I didn't get to take many lake pictures and stuff and play around like I normally would because I only had 27 exposures to use.... so I took two pictures of the 4 deer on the mountain... but I didn't have a zoom....I don't know how they will look.... back to the fishing now! So we are in the boat and my cousin showed me a little bit how to drive the boat, just incase something happened to him where I would be stuck and need to drive it myself (I didn't actually do any driving of the boat, he just showed me the controls) then we went around the lake a little and he showed me the old train tunnel that is now sometimes covered in water when the lake levels get high enough and some houses nearby and stuff and we went around pretty quick and felt the breeze as we flew across the water at higher speeds. It was really nice. Then we went to the spot he knew was usually good for catching fish near the dam. he showed me how to bait my hook and we put our lines in the water.

Now before we left he told me that nobody ever catches any fish until he drinks some beer. I told him I wasn't drinking anything... he said just a sip, and his wife said just let it touch your lips. I didn't even want to do that. So at the bait shop I bought a root beer. I told him it has "beer" in the title and was the closest I would get. SO as we were driving around the lake getting close to where we were going to fish he was like "you'd better start drinking your beer" (he added emphasis when he said it, thus the italics) So I drank my beer. It was about 7pm when we started "fishing". a couple hours later we started bbq'ing and I don't remember if it was just before that or just after that Robbie caught a small bass. Now in this area you are not allowed to keep any bass unless they are at least 15inches long so he had to release him back. He gave me a hard time and said I was supposed to be the first one to catch anything... oh well :) we ate and we waited some more. It was such a beautiful day the temperature was nice and it wasn't windy or anything. Now of course we were "roughing" it so to speak on the boat. There are no bathrooms and so if you have to go there is a bucket, you take the bucket to the front and everyone looks away and you take care of business. After that you dump in the lake and "rinse" the bucket. I had decided that even though I have bucket pee'd before I would wait until I couldn't wait anymore to use the bucket. It was getting later and was close to ten and I was thinking I would wait until 10 tp use the bucket. But in the back of my mind I kept thinking that as soon as I was on the bucket that my line would get a bite. I kept waiting. It was after 10 now and I was still waiting. As I was getting closer to wanting the bucket I got a bite. WHen I finally saw something pull my line I was like "oh oh oh oh" and until I started to get up to get my pole Robbie thought my knee was hurting! He was making fun of my noises after the fact. Well as it turns out he was the one that got away! But he put up a mighty good fight and got most of my worm! Man you should've seen him! I didn't see him, but you should've :) So we rebaited my line and got it back in the water, I grabbed the bucket and about 5 min after the first bite (and after I was done with the bucket) I got another bite.... "oh oh oh" now we were fishing! This one didn't get away!! It was a small trout, probably close to the size of Robbies bass but maybe just a hair smaller. We got him in, I took a few pictures with my fish (I named him Timothy Trout) and we were still fishing. I caught Timothy about 10:45pm. We stayed out until about 12:15 when RObbie started cleaning up fishing stuff and we headed back. I had thought I might have had a couple more bites, but if I did they got away too! So we headed back to load the boat and we waited for someone else who didnt seem to know how to load their boat on the trailer right so we waited... finally we got ours on and we were heading home. We got home about 2am and went to sleep. Yesterday Robbie cut the filet's off my fish for me (he had told me I would have to clean my own fish, but apparantly since I only caught one he took pity on me?? I don't really know) but before he did I took some more pictures with Timothy Trout and this time it was with my digital camera! then as he cut Timothy I took pictures.... then we rinsed the filet's and put him in a ziploc and got rid of the rest. Since we only brought home one small fish and there was to be 7 of us eating they got some out of the freezer they had caught previous times and we still had fish for dinner. Robbie fried little Timothy... I got pictures of that... and a picture of my taking my first bite. My mom says its rude of me to name my fish than eat him... but this was the first time I was to eat something I caught myself not storebought or whatever and so even though its weird I think it made it easier for me. I would never think of living on a farm and naming pigs, or chickens or whatever I was planning on eating. I could never raise something as a pet and than eat it. I didn't name timothy until the morning when we were taking pictures. By then because he had been in the ice chest he was already frozen so I think its completely different. If you want to think less of me for naming a dead fish before I eat it... so what! I can't stop you! But people name their recipes and specialty meals they prepare so if its a hamburger or something isn't that the same thing??

Anyways it was good eating! RObbie says I can come back to go fishing anytime I want. He even said if I come closer to the winter like late Oct early Nov before it gets too cold that he would take me to the Delta where we can catch the BIG fish. Huge sturgeons and such! THat would be fun! I would have the potential to catch a fish as big/tall as me and stuff! So depending on what happens with my knee and such I plan to do that! I think it would be great! But this time I am not leaving my camera in the car :)

Well the doctors office finally called me yesterday that they got my medication in for my injections. SO I called to set up an appointment to get it.... Fri they are all booked up, so I asked about afternoon today and they were booked. Mon is the holiday and Tues they are bookd. SO I don't even get my 1st injection until Weds afternoon!! All the trouble I went to and as long as I have waited already and its more waiting for me now! Oh well. It means I get to stay another night here and tonight we are going to my UNcles house and having a BBQ/ pool party. My other cousin is coming as well with his wife and two girls and RObbie and Deneen and the other kids are coming. SO it will be fun. Tomorrow I drive home and Sat we are all going to Disneyland for my Mom's birthday! Lotsa fun! For now I gotta shower and go shopping. I am making the macaroni salad for tonight and picking up the beef for RObbie to make burgers (apparantly he has some delicious recipe for burgers)....

So incase you were wondering, even though we spent like 6 hours fishing and only brought one fish home to eat, I am not sad because you should've seen the one that got away!!!!!