we didn't even try and fish...

We should go to a lake, bring our rods, and not fish. we catch the same amount of fish anyway. so that's what we did. James and his girlfriend came to my house. then we went to the dollar store to pick up army men, then we went to Canadian tire to meet Mike.

dirty windshield

james leading the way

After getting up McCollough Road, which was nicely plowed, we headed towards fish lake.  word on the street was there were fish in it.  When we got to the access to fish lake, it was totally plowed closed. 

can't go this way

So we headed to browne lake.  The road there was also closed, so we walked to the lake.  totally empty and a good place to check out.  left the fishing stuff in the trucks.

or we could, and walk

There was so much snow and after 5 weeks of no luck fishing, we decided to just park at the hydraulic lake camp site and chill out there.

lets both get stuck.

There was tons of snow, and we had to dig out the fire pit from 3 feet of snow, once we found it.

we found the fire pit

Then we saw the approaching forces and got out the pellet guns.  pretty darn fun.

target practice

About 4:30 we headed down.  Another successful mission and the 1st stuck of 2013.  we'll be back out next weekend.  you should come.

1970 judge. 

snowshoe saturday at soverign lake

Christine and I haden't been out snowshoeing together yet this year. Today was the day to change that. before a planned rendezvous with some friends in Vernon, we hit up sovereign Lakes to strap the snowshoes on.

We've been here before, and this time we decided to try a new trail.  There was tons of snow, and at the high altitude it hung like polar bears to the trees.

ansewome

christine.  yup, thats her alright.

We were pretty much the only other ones on the trails.  we say 1 dog and 2 people.  we said hi to the dog.

its me

snow ghosty meadow

We finished just in time to make it to the Thai restaurant with perfect timing.  6 km of sweet sweet powder.  We'll have to try and get a few more in this season.

echo lake. it's pretty awesome.

 I'd never been to echo lake near lavington before.  seen it on a map, but never been there.  Now i wonder why it took so long.  Wayne and Natasha suggested it for what has turned out to be the weekly ice fishing adventure.

long narrow echo lake.

It's a provincial park and apparently has sandy beaches.  no sand visible when we were there, but cool misty skys in the early afternoon and even some sun.

pat and charlie at their hole

Mike had his big red in the back of his van.  the fun got turned up to 11 when he pulled it out and we took turns blasting around the lake on it.  no injuries.  just saying.

mike and the trike.

this thing is mad fun.

There were lots of dogs in attendance as well.  Dog, and lula came with natasha and wayne.  Charli can with patrick, and oscar showed up when Ian did.

dog waiting for the fish to bite.

got cloudy later in the day

There were quite a few of us, maybe a record for an adventure.  in attendance was myself, mike, tom, patrick, wayne and natasha.  Ian popped by for a visit as well.  a sweet surprise.

good times right there.  good times.

The clouds that rolled in later in the day didn't make us sad.  i was happy to see the sun at all, and the clouds added a cool vibe.

Even a 1970 toyota celica gt was spotted on the lake.  enough ice so that it didn't break through.  should have seen that thing drift!

'70 celica gt.

Another successful trip in the books.  no fish of course, but whatever...  Next sunday possibly out to fish lake.  the name sounds promising.

and cheers to wayne, i stole some of your pictures.

return to james lake

it was time to head back to james lake and try some ice more ice fishing. tom, mike julie and i headed up the freshly plowed road to the small sheltered lake. being small and sheltered, there was 3 inches of wet slush on top of the ice. it was wet.

plowed road up.  in the sun!

there was a lot of snow. our fire pit was dug down over 3 feet, leaving us with nice natural white cold seats.

the fire on the bank.  julie and tom got it ripping nicely.

it was warm and sunny, what else could we ask for, except maybe some fish.

we had the lake to oursleves all day.  pretty minty.

the lake is a reservoir, thats the dam

the fire after 4 hours of burning finally got to the grass

slush trail to the holes.

onyx collecting the firewood.

After a few hours of swimming back and forth between the holes and the fire, the sun was sinking and it was time to head down.  the road was pretty easy to drive and it was a successful day.  mostly because we don't measure success by the number of fish we catch.

the a-team stopped by.  mr. t didn't catch any fish either.

gonna try again next weekend.  try for fish, but having a blast doesn't require much effort. 

More icefishing but no more fish

Another weekend, another opportunity to adventure it up. this time with mike and donald up to oyama lake for ice fishing. The fact that i've never caught a fish while ice fishing does not deter me from trying or having a good time. good thing, because we didn't catch any this time either.

a shelter someone built at the forestry site

donald and mike getting the fire ready to cook fish.

looking into our bay

mike drilling another hole.  by where the fish are.

My turn by the fire.  mike drilling yet another hole. 

The road up as 8 inches of new powder, and we did drive past the site of the demise of truck 1. rubber side stayed down this trip. Next weekend we will go out and stand around on a frozen lake again. might pick up fish from IGA.