The weekend before the 4th I headed up by myself for the first 2 days. Fishing was good and the weather was great. It was so sunny I had a chance to use my new fishing shirt and Buff to keep the sun off me. The Buff is really nice. Keeps my face out of the sun without having to smear sunscreen on it. The shirt from Columbia is really nice too. The material is something synthetic so it keeps the skin cool and wicks away moisture while blocking something like 90% of UV rays. I probably look kind of silly, but it's worth it to keep my skin safe.
I had a chance to use my new phone mount and remote control to take pictures. Worked great. Totally ready for any monsters I might catch by myself :D
After my 2 days alone Diane came up. The weather for the next 3 days was pretty miserable. Rain all the time and very windy. We still had a good time and managed to catch fish. After all the time I have spent fishing alone it was very nice to have some company :) Diane caught plenty of fish and got to see me play the suspended fish using the sonar.
That weekend Diane's two brothers and their families came up. We rented a pontoon boat for all the extra people. We took the pontoon and my boat out to fish. This was really fun. I had her brother Danny's two boys and wife in my boat. Danny was driving the pontoon with his brother David, David's wife and David's two girls. We managed to catch some good sized fish and decided to keep some for dinner. It was really cool seeing the boys catch fish. All the kids were great. I'm not even kidding, I actually had fun hanging out with kids lol.
We had to take the pontoon back at 11 am. After that we went back to camp and started cooking fish. The fish were really too big to cook in a pan. So we cut them up into smaller pieces. Even then we burnt through a whole bottle of propane. Danny must have spent an hour cooking all the trout. One of Danny's boys and his wife even cleaned a few fish. I was pretty impressed.
After eating fish we broke down camp and went to a nice hotel in Granby to stay the night. I managed to catch a cold that day so I went to bed early. Diane's brothers and their families went to Frasier or Winter Park to see fireworks that night.
The next morning we all met at Java Lava and had breakfast then headed home. Well Diane and I headed home, everyone else headed to Yellowstone to continue with their vacation. It was really fun to hang out with Diane's family. Hope we can do it again next year.
I spent the next 3 days at home with a cold, then I went back to Granby for a week. I was alone most of this trip. My friend Daniel made it up for a day though. We did pretty well fishing the day he was out. He even managed to hook a fish in the ass lol. Told him that only counted as a half fish. The rest of that trip was pretty uneventful. Caught a lot of fish, nothing huge though. I was very happy to make it home that weekend.
Over those two weeks I did learn some things though. First was how to operate my boat properly. I discovered on accident why you adjust the motor trim in a position besides all the way down when the boat is moving :s It's honestly kind of embarrassing to have been driving a boat for years and not known this. One morning when I launched the boat I trimmed the motor down into the water. Not all the way down. Just far enough so the prop and fins were completely submerged a few inches below the water. Then I fired the motor up and let the engine warm up. I usually then trim the motor all the way down and take off, leaving the engine trimmed all the way down the whole time I'm on the water. This time I forgot and took off. I noticed right away that my boat was moving way faster. My boat would always go on a plane, but now the bow was more out of the water than usual. Also the ride was smoother. So yeah, this is why you trim the boat engine up a little when driving the boat haha. My boat actually got a 25% increase in speed from this. So not only do you get a speed increase and a smoother ride, but you also save on gas. Feels like I have a new boat now :D
The second thing I learned is that the new Fenwick rod is not exactly what I want. I went from a super soft tip with the Shimano to a really hard tip with the Fenwick. The longer I fished with the Fenwick the more I visualized myself fishing with a 2x4. I think for heavier jigs it will be perfect, but for a 1/2 oz jig, it's just too stiff for me. I picked up a St. Croix Premier this week. I think it's going to fit perfectly in between the Shimano and the Fenwick. I'm also pretty happy that the St. Croix is 100% made in the USA.
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