Lake Michigan Fishing

I went fishing for salmon in Lake Michigan two weekends ago with my dad, nephew, two brothers and my sister. Can you say awesome?! Definitely in my top 10 life events. Doesn't happen very often (or ever) that I get to experience something so cool with some of my favorite people ever. Thanks to Daddy-o for having the dream and paying paving the way! It was a blast, and I'm so thankful Becca and I swapped spots with Robert and Tom at the last minute as it was originally supposed to be a "boys" trip.  They would have had a great time, but I'm pretty sure we made the party. Let it be known that I absolutely loooooove my sister!

My big bro Scott and I rode together and left bright and early Saturday morning to drive 6 hours to Kenosha, WI where we met up with the rest of the fam. We went out fishing almost immediately for five hours with Captain Al, who totally rocked. After our first five hour trip, we checked into our hotel and then headed out for dinner where we were able to literally enjoy the fish we had just caught. (Our captain cleaned the fish for us and then hand delivered it to the cook.) We got to try it broiled, fried, and blackened and all were fabulous. After dinner, we showered and hit our pillows hard in anticipation of our 4 am wake-up call to head back out on the boat for another 5 hours. Yes, Captain Al wanted to leave at 4:30. We were a tad late, but I don't recall exactly whose fault that was. *clearing throat* Anyway...being out on the boat so early in the morning was very cool. The sun was just coming up and it was beautiful. 

I'm not sure how many poles we had out at all times, but we went youngest to oldest whenever we got one on a line. At a couple points, there were three or four people on deck reeling in. Pretty exciting! What's not exciting is knowing you have a fish 300 feet out. Becca and dad shared the work of bringing a big one in that at one point was 600 feet out. (The reels have trackers on them.) 600 feet! That's a lot of line to bring in. I think it took a good 45 minutes. These ain't your little sunfish. They're big and strong and fight. Ahh I love it! So nerve wracking and exciting.

Noah bringing in the very first fish!

How big will it be?!

Dad and his two favorite daughters...

I had a death grip on that thing. They had teeth!

Day 1 catch:

Four lines out! Who will bring one in first?!

Those are decent....

7:30 am beer!

Day 2 catch:

It was a really cool weekend. Scott had plenty of time on our 12 hour road trip to teach me all about the war in Iraq (he served for a year) and how the government works and money management and how to run your own business and all sorts of interesting things that a brother should teach his little sister about. He's so smart and I love being able to chat with him.  We all had a fabulous time - I only wish mom had been able to join us, but she was busy at home hanging out with Hayden and Weston. Sounds like they had a great time too. Great memories! Thanks so much, Dad!!

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In this video Scott makes it look easy...it was actually really hard work! You hold the pole against your hip or leg when reeling - I was so bruised up!