Summer Road Trip, Part 2: Fish Tails

On the Tuesday morning before the Fourth, my brother Sam and my cousin Joel and I got up early and skipped across the Oregon border to Lake Owyhee, dumped Sam's boat in the lake and left the civilized world behind for a full day of fishing. It was awesome.

Lake Owyhee, or "Lake Oweejee" as Grandpa used to call it, is a long, narrow, deep, high-desert reservoir out in the middle of North Western Nowhere, Oregon. It follows a winding canyon into the Owyhee Mountains and most of its shore line is completely inaccessible except by boat. It's also full of fish.

It didn't take too long before we were catching some of them. Sam's the expert bass man and he quickly snagged a few good looking small mouth bass.

It's not a real fishing trip if you don't have a few contests going on. I got the award for the smallest fish

I did manage to catch some more respectable swimmers. I think this one is actually the Day's First Fish.

Joel lured a really nice large mouth bass out of her hiding place in the rocks.

We released all the bass, kept all the crappie, and shot as many carp as we could with Sam's bow. We learned that it's harder than it looks. Joel finally managed to skewer one of the prolific critters.

We got home early enough to be able to fillet our cooler full of crappie before it got dark. The boys weren't much help.

Thanks again Sam, for hosting a very memorable day.