Getting out of the house...

The weekend was unplugged.  No cell phone, ipods, ipads, laptops.  From our mom and pop hotel room in Door County we cheated a little and watched some of the summer olympics on the old school TV...otherwise we were unplugged.  Family weekends are just that.  You can sneak an 8 wt along but it's still not a fishing trip.  The kids swam and enjoyed the simple pleasure a swingset provides.  We packed our own food with the exception of 3 meals which we had at the same restaurant because the service was good and the food was better.  I snuck away a few times once to watch the kid at the end of the pier catch a nice small mouth and once to wade the flats of Bailey's Harbor looking for (but not finding) feeding carp.  Such sweet failure.

More Rain!!!!

Another dose of the life giving liquid!!
Not a lot...but some.  Is the glass half empty or half full?
Neither, but at least it's no longer bone dry.

The Big W...fishing trip...or family?

I finally had enough heat and loaded the fam in the vehicle for an afternoon on the big W.  As can be expected, the fishing was poor to horse#$*%....but the girls liked the sand and the warm water.   Sometimes that's just the way it is.

Rain...finally.

After weeks and weeks and weeks with high temps...rain finally!!!

Drought

A June with only .3" of rain...a sun that won't stop beating down.  I headed to the local spring creek looking for a break from the madness.  Water temps were in the mid 70's.  I opted to shoot some pics instead of messing with the stressed trout.  
Bummer.

The origins of sub-species

I was wrapping flies for a friend today and happened to glance up and notice an artifact from my very early years.  My Dad made this vice for my brother and me when we expressed an interest in fly tying.  I'd guess it's 30+ years old.  In case we didn't mention it...thanks Dad.

Carpin' the Dells

With the 4th falling on a Wednesday day this year, my wife and I decided to take the kids for an overnight at a resort in Wisconsin Dells.  The place was right across the "lake" from the Tommy Bartlett Water Ski Show so we got to watch the shows for free from the deck of our pool.  I'm glad I finally got that checkedoff my bucket list...  The kids swam and slid down the water slide, my wife relaxed in the sun with a book and I pulled a carp out of the lake with a craft fur clouser.
Happy 4th of July.