A-Fishing We Will Go!

It's hard to believe that we have lived in the County for five years and have never been boating or fishing here. That changed this past weekend! Our friends Scott and Sophie Walcott own a seasonal trailer park, "West Lake Willows", on West Lake in the County. It is a lovely spot, and they treated four families to 2 overnights this past weekend in celebration of their oldest son's birthday!

Here are the kids in front of Scott's "old" boat; he's waiting for a new upgraded one to arrive any day. This boat still has GPS and a fish/depth finder so it was fun for us. Kevin and the kids were able to fish; I don't have an Ontario fishing liscense for 2008 and the expense wasn't worth it for one outing, so I drove the boat while everyone else trolled/jigged for fish. Quite a lot of work to keep the boat going alongside the shoal off Wesley Acres Point, given the wind, waves and the fact that I've never driven a boat before ;-).



Alison, Claire and Iain on the dock with the famous Sandbanks "Dunes" in the background.



"No problemo ... it's fine out here in the front, mom!"



"Ack! But we didn't know you'd speed up!"



I'm hoping that some time between now and when he is 16, Iain learns to drive a little less ... uh ... intensely. No intermediate speeds here ... either putt-putt or 35 mph. Wild man! And yes, he's driving on his own.



Our host himself, Scott Walcott, helping to release one of our "catch". We caught eight fish today, however one was too small, two were Northern Pike (good and BIG but very bony), and the bass (large mouth? small mouth? not sure) was not in season. We kept four walleye (pickerel).



Alison with her catch.



Kevin caught the biggest walleye.



Scott removing the hook from a Northern Pike. Some teeth!




Iain's catch:



And one for Claire!



Alison taking us home ..



And a brief video of a glorious boat ride :-).






Scott taught Alison and I how to PROPERLY fillet a fish, and we each did one.



Voila! Dinner ... although we haven't eaten it since our meals had been planned in advance.



The view from our cabin ... lovely. Notice Iain up in the tree ;-).


Thank you SO MUCH, Walcott family, for this gift!