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Busy, busy, busy, my daughter and her husband moved to a new house this weekend. The move was accomplished with the use of pickup trucks. Not the best way to move but we got it done. The house was built in 1959 and has been vacant for a while. The kids got a very good deal on the place and I think they will be very happy. I know that I like the school district better then the one they left, all in all a much better neighborhood for little Ava to grow up in.


I got a phone call from my buddy Jim wondering if I had smoked the fish we caught last weekend. Like I said I have been busy, it seems that he is a little worried that he may not get his share, he may have reason to worry based on history. I have told him that he wants to make sure that he gets some of the fish he had better be there when I pull it out of the smoker. I have been known to consume a lot of fish in the time it takes to come out of the smoker to a plastic bag. But I will try and be better this time. I just brought the fish up from the freezer to thaw and I will have it in the smoker tomorrow. It will be in the smoker 10-12 hours.

I need to jump into the shower, I am ushering at the second service this morning at church

A wonderful four days of fishing at Flaming gorge with a couple of buddies (Nate, and Jim). We caught a number of fish all were good sized. Most will end up in my smoker next weekend. I was plagued with equipment problems most of the weekend. I had a brand new fishing reel (Okuma) and it froze up solid. I could not get it to turn. It was useless and ended up tossed in the back of my truck. I had problems with my line on a couple of my reels. All the line was new, and my buddy Nate said I must have put the line on backwards. Which may be true but I think I should invest in a better brand of swivels if I am going to do much trolling with spinning type reels. I will have a bait caster before I go back to the gorge, much better for trolling. Lost some nice pop gear trying to bring in a good sized rainbow trout, the fish went under the boat just as it got up to the boat. . Cut the line and was gone. When the weekend was all but done and we had hooked up the trailer to my truck we went to pull chocks and I had a flat tire on the trailer. I pulled the 3 ½ ton floor jack (don’t leave home with out it) from the back of the truck and we swapped out the tire with the spare... But please believe me when I say it was a wonderful four day weekend. The three of us had a great time. Being guys we made fun of each other all weekend, and laughed a great deal.



All the salmon we caught was done by trolling, for those who do not fish this means we hook up about a pound or two of shinny blades, spinners and beads get it down to about thirty five feet in the water and drag all over the lake. It works good, even picked up a few rainbow trout. Now I have been trout fishing for more years then I want to think about. I have done all kinds of angling with a whole lot of different tackle to catch trout. When I watched Nate throw a white tube jig (bass lure) up next to the rocks I figured he was wasting his time. When he caught his first rainbow I figured it was a fluke, then the second one I started to watch him a little more closely (you should keep your eyes on him anyway). By the last day we all were using white tube jigs and hauling in big fish. The trout are in their spawning mode right now and very aggressive. This is the reason the technique worked. But it worked great.



The trip home was uneventful (360 miles round trip), and it was good to get home into a shower and to relax. Having fun is a full time job and when in your mid fifties can just about wear you out. I have skipped the gym today and will start up again tomorrow (maybe).

We leave at 6:30 in the morning for flaming gorge. I know I had said that it would not take long to get the trailer in order, well I lied I have been working on it for two nights. But the trailer is all packed except for my cloths and hooked up to the truck. I am ready for this trip. My buddy Nate will be here at 6:00AM we will throw his stuff in the trailer and be on the road by 6:30 to meet Jim (he has the boat) at the pre-appointed meeting spot. If all goes well we will be on the lake by 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. Talk to you when I get back.

Went fishing today with my buddy Nate, and fishing was fantastic. The catching on the other hand was not so good. Between the two of us we did not have single bite. This is fishing most of the morning and afternoon in two different locations. But we had a good time. The first location was Willard bay. Good place to catch catfish and wipers (white bass and striped bass highbred) I wanted to see how my new knees (double knee replacement last November) would handle climbing over the dike. Going over the outside part of the dike was easy all dirt. The water side of the dike is very large rock all jumbled together. I have what Nate calls an industrial strength rod holder that I also used a walking stick to climb down and back up over the rocks. My leg strength was not what I had hoped and I did not have a whole lot of confidence. But I managed to get over the dike and back, which made me feel good. The second place we went was the Bear River. Much easier, you can drive right to the river or into it if your brakes don’t work.

I have put myself under the gun so to speak. I leave Thursday morning for a fishing trip to Flaming gorge and the trailer is still winterized. I have been putting this task off and I don’t know why. I will work o the trailer tomorrow after a mother day’s brunch at my daughter’s house. It should not take to long to get the trailer ready. Just need to get my butt in gear and do it.

Got home yesterday. The meetings went well and we got a lot done. I pretty much let everybody know that this may have been my last time attending the meetings. The bride and I have talked some about me retiring at the end of the year. I honestly thought I was going go until the end of 2009. But things are starting to happen at work that I just don't want to put up with. I'll have 35 year of service at the end of the year and I think that is plenty. Also I have mom living with me now and I think I should spend time with her. She is 87 and not getting any younger. So much to think about.

Back to the meetings I attended. As you can see not everybody was fully engaged at all times