Back to Lake Roosevelt

Dad finished up his harvest and was able to come out for a week and help with the kids so we decided to take a few days and head back to Lake Roosevelt and give him a little taste of some of Washington country.  The kids were very excited to go back as well and I figured maybe with my Dad with me we would get in some "serious" fishing.

The first day we headed north on the lake nearby where we were earlier in August.  The weather was absolutely beautiful without any smoke to deal with.  Most of the summer crowd had decided to stay home as well and we had a lot of space to ourselves. 

We stopped by a rope swing but unfortunately the water was a little low to make full use of it.   That didn't stop the kids from swinging on it though. 

Its amazing how something this simple can entertain them for hours.  It brought lots of laughter and giggles.

After plenty of swinging, swimming, and beach time I finally couldn't take it any longer and suggested we really ought to get some fishing in before it got to late.  Turns out we located them and put the right combination in to catch a good batch of Walleye and a few Trout.  I think we ended up catching something like 22 walleye and 3 trout in a couple hours.  Here are some good smiles at the fillet station as we get ready to clean them.

We enjoyed some slower paced mornings and the kids found some good dirt to play in.  I find that I notice things that I didn't before, like how dirty their cloths are getting and wondering if I'm going to be able to get them clean.  They need to stick with the "easy" stains while I'm still learning the laundry business.

After the sun got up a little we headed south on the second day to a beach that we had been to with Jeannie before.  We called it the "snake eggs" beach.  You can review in the archives of 2013 as to what Jeannie posted on it then.  I broke down and got a new phone not long ago and these new phones do take amazing pictures.  This picture is from my dad's phone but we both have Samsung's and are quite pleased with the photos they take.  Most all of my pictures are now just phone pictures.  Makes it convenient and easier to document life's fleeting moments.

Morgan and Logan trying their hand at catching a bass.  We do catch a few small-mouth bass right off this beach.  I believe we caught 4-6 this day but wasn't really keeping track.

I don't believe Jeannie's family have ever been to this beach before, but I'm sure that will change now that they know there is a carving on the cliff wall of their college emblem. (WSU) No doubt carved there long ago by some very intelligent form of early man.

After some more fun in the water and sun we decided we really did need to go back to our fishing spot up North again and see if we couldn't get a few more walleye out of our fishing hole.  This time we managed to get about 3 hours of fishing in and put about 33 walleye in the boat.  We ran out of room on the fillet station this time and had to start stacking them.  Some good smiles again after this fine catch.  You get a few heads turning when you bring this many fish to the fillet station.  Lots of fine eating as walleye are one of the premier white meats out there.

You'll notice Morgan did not make the picture.  I think she had enough of "fish" by this time.  She was a real trooper putting up with all us "boys" though and especially enjoyed her time in the water and on the beach.

More great memories were made and it was fun to have my dad out to an area we have enjoyed as a family ever since moving up here.  Jeannie enjoyed this lake as a girl and it is fun to have our kids make their own memories of times here.