Heather, Cathy, Laurie, and I (oh yeah and our husbands too) left early Thursday morning to make the long trek across the state. Heidi and her husband Luke were also supposed to go with us, but due to unforseen circumstances, they had to cancel at the last minute. We were really sad that they weren't able to go. The drive took about 11 hours, including losing an hour crossing into the Mountain time zone. Girls rode in one car and boys rode in the other car. Trust me, I think us women solved just about all the world's problems in the amount of time we were in the car together.
Friday morning we were up before the dawn. The fish were ready to be caught and we were ready to be doing the catching. We met up with our guide Tony and our bait boy Casey. Casey was also our bait boy last year and he is quite entertaining when he changes the words to songs. That's a story for another day.
About ten minutes into the trip, Cathy caught the first fish on our boat. She would go on to catch a second fish. Little tip: hold the fish out from you when taking a picture and it will look bigger. Cathy ended up catching the largest fish on our boat this year at 32". The current tournament record is 35.5".
Next fish caught was by Heather. Heather would hold the record for the day with four fish caught. Last year she caught one fish. Tournament rules say she could only keep two, which worked out fine because the other two she caught were native and she had to put them back. Tournament record so far is ten fish caught in one day by the same girl.
Laurie was up third. She only caught one fish for the day, but it was a respectable size.
Laurie's sister Paula caught the fourth fish on the boat. She lives outside Boise and this was her first year in the tournament.
In case you haven't noticed the one quirky fact about our catching skills, we caught fish in alphabetical order of first names (crazy that the same thing happened last year!). So guess who that leaves to catch the next fish. No pressure though. Well actually there was a lot of pressure to catch a fish. Tony and Casey did all they could to try to make it happen. I am sad to report that I did not catch a fish this year. I am a little disappointed, but I had a great time anyway. I figure that I had the sophmore slump and I am planning my redemption for next year!
There were three other boats of women that went out the same day as us and their boats caught a total of three, two, and one fish that day. I am just so glad that we weren't on a boat that only caught one fish the entire day!
Tally at the end of the day, eight fish caught, six keepers. The boys had their hands full cleaning and sealing up fish when we got back to the house.
The fishing crew:
Brian and Paula
Heather and Chad
Scott and I
Ed and Cathy
Laurie and Carl
We have already made our reservations for next year and requested Tony and Casey again. Hopefully Heidi and Luke will be able to go. Next year we are going the last week of the tournament. We are scheduled to fish on Friday and then go the fish dance and award presentations on Saturday night. The boys can't wait for the fish dance! I can't wait to be back on the boat, thinking about nothing.
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