Everything happens for a reason.
Sometimes I find it hard taking a vacation and not going fishing (well, maybe more than sometimes). This year we were planning on a family vacation across Canada, but after careful consideration we decided not to travel too far from home. Our planned 3 week vacation turned into 2 weeks and it was back to the drawing board to sketch up what our family vacation would look like.
With fishing on top of our priority list, we started considering a 2 week vacation to Alberta for some pike and walleye fishing. From there we planned to do West Edmonton mall, Drumheller and the Calgary Zoo. Unfortunately, our plans must have changed five or six times until we came up with a well balanced family vacation.
As our children grow older, I realize that it’s not always about fishing. Time spent doing other memorable activities are great for everyone and help keep the batteries charged and enthusiasm high for every fishing trip.
Due to some unexpected costs repairing our truck over the last couple months, we decided on a modified Alberta trip of family fun exploring the non fishing activities. We also decided as a family that we wanted to spent a week relaxing by a camp fire and floating on a lake.
To save on costs (and thinking the cabins were fully booked), we decided to dig our family tent out of storage and call up Russ at Moosehaven Resort on Hathaway Lake which is one of our favorite family friendly resorts. While tenting was an option, a cabin had come available for the exact dates we were looking for. How amazing! Everything happens for a reason.
We chose to use Moosehaven as our base camp to all the great lakes in the area. I was fortunate enough to jig up some kokanee on Deka Lake using Big-Nasty Tackle rattle jigs. We were also fortunate enough to catch a few nice kokanee, one being on our new Spitfire Fishing Products hoochie, jig up some lake trout and have a fresh feed during our stay.
While fishing was high on my priority list this trip, I was also looking forward to some relaxing nights at the campfire.
This trip, I also had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people from the group both on the resort, at other lakes and at the infamous Interlakes market CANCO. Thank you to all those who took the time to come over and say hi. It’s amazing to finally meet people in person that I’ve been talking to and/or following through their posts in the group.
While the weather was not ideal for kokanee and lake trout fishing, we made the most out of the times when it was not raining. We even deployed our dual umbrellas and it worked pretty good during the brief Cariboo rain storms that rolled through every now and then.
One morning, we woke up at 4am and hurried out of the cabin to the lake. I was amazed at how my boys were still excited to wake up so early and go fishing. I truly believe that spending time doing other family activities has helped this process. However, once they become teenagers the true wake up test of 4am can be tested and the results will be shared.
I am not a mechanic. While this is something I say often, it’s true and I hope to learn and share what I learn over the next couple years. I have been trying to learn as much as I can about fixing my boat trailer and boat motor over the last couple years. This learning process was not different this trip.
While getting up at 4am proved to be the ticket to a calm lake in the morning, we only made it a couple hundred yards on the lake until my main motor died and would not start. And, since I have been undecided on a gas kicker or electric trolling motor, we found ourselves floating on the lake and not a soul was around. Thankfully I had purchased some new oars this spring and the boys got to learn what rowing our boat looks like. Surprisingly, I was able to effortlessly row at kokanee trolling speeds. Rowing my boat made me wonder if I’ll be rowing and trolling one day. What a great way to get back in shape while exploring some of the great lakes we have in our Province.
After some much needed help and a day later, we were able to get my boat motor running (thanks for your help). I learned a lot about my motor this trip and thankfully feel more confident using it, because I understand more about how it works.
Our vacation was great as always. When I was younger, I used to “need” to be the first and last person on the water. Over the years, I’ve learned to slow down and take in my surroundings. I’ve learned to try and learn something new each trip, like working on my boat motor and not getting frustrated that I’m not fishing (this one was hard for me this trip). While the rain storms were persistent, we focused on taking advantage of the good weather in between.
Everything happens for a reason. That being said, where will we go from here?