Pan Fishin' With Sadie Hawkins

     Most of my many hours spent fishing, I have spent in the pursuit of trout.  Yes my friends, I, like most in Utah, am a trout fisherman.  Last week however, I made the decision to deviate from this path and go pan fishing in Utah Lake with Matthew Clark, Pat Houston, and Elijah Urquiaga.  And what a good decision it was.  It turns out that a double tailed Mr. Twister grub impaled on a jig, reeled in at just the right speed, close by the reeds makes the black crappie, large-mouth bass, bluegill, and perch go crazy.  We ended up with 26 black crappie, 10 yellow perch, 2 large-mouth bass, 1 white bass, and a bunch of bluegill (which we threw back).  It turns out that the high water levels in Utah Lake this year allowed lots of little fish to hide which in turn fed the big fish and made them even bigger fish.  All in all, a sweet afternoon!  Picts Below:

Our catch arrayed out on the boat.

So who's Sadie Hawkins?

     Sadie Hawkins' is one of the two girls' choice dances at Timpview High School.  Unlike conventional dates, Sadies' is a date where the girls provide transportation, tickets, and fun activities to boot.  In other words: it's awesome!  I was asked by Megan Cook, who happens to be extremely awesome as well.  Imagine my surprise on finding my side porch covered with a story written in chalk and underlined words which I had to decode to find the secret message.  Needless to say, it was a great night.  Our group met at Megan's house in the afternoon to play games and eat dinner.  Dinner turned out to be a 6 foot long sub with Lemonade which was utterly delicious.  Next we all piled into the car and headed to the Dance which was lots of fun as well.  After a quick stop at Days for some ice cream we returned to the house to make brownies, ice cream sundaes, and play Apples to Apples (one of my top favorites ;) late into the night.  Picts below:

The school's banner ad.

My shirt, handiwork of Megan.

Our excellent group (or most of it; one couple took a while to arrive).

We took our pictures on a tandem bike.

The six foot sandwich (we were all pretty excited :).

     That was pretty awesome.  

     On a side note (I promise you're near the end), I just finished reading Inheritance, the fourth book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini.

Spoiler Alert!!! (highlight the text below only if you have read the book!!!)

     What an amazing book!  I can't believe that it's actually over.  Done!  It makes me so sad to think that there aren't going to be anymore about Eragon, Saphira, Arya, and Firnen!  I just knew it would be Arya.  I am unashamed to say that I shed a few tears along with Eragon at the end when he was forced to part from Arya after they are finally happy and together.  Ah, the beauty of bitter-sweet endings.  Parting is such sweet sorrow!  Ha! you didn't know that Yours Truly was a romanticist, now did you!  Well yes, I am.  And what an amazing book it was!  The problem with great fantasy books is that they are like the Mirror of Erisid in that you could almost get lost in them and wish to be in the imaginary world created by the author because your world, in comparison, seems dull and uninviting.  I certainly do.  Perhaps that is part of what makes great fantasy: a world worth fantasizing about.

     If you hadn't read the book and you highlighted the above text anyways, shame on you.  You have committed a grave crime and must read the book immediately!

Atra esterní ono thelduin. Mor'ranr lífa unin hjarta onr. Un du evarínya ono varda. 

-Andrew 

The Young Man And The Sea

      Just a little while ago I finished reading The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway.  On coincidence, just a few days after finishing this great work of literature (which I would highly recommend to anyone), Matthew Clark invited me to go with him to Strawberry Reservoir to enjoy a lazy afternoon of fishing the lake and drifting around in a boat.  I thought it a grand idea as fishing is one of my favorite activities.  We headed up to Strawberry yesterday at about 3:00.  Strawberry is a beautiful place and we were fortunate enough to find the lake reasonably calm with little spots of silver shimmering on the ripples.  It was a good place to be, looking up at the sky and watching the sunny white clouds drift by.  Strawberry Reservoir is named thus because of the ruddy color that the rocks and soil around it sport.  It is also a great place to look for wildlife.  We witnessed a small group of elk trot down one of the hills surrounding the reservoir to lap up some of the cool, clear water.  Mule deer can often be seen near the shore as well.  As Chief, the personable black lab in the pictures, splashed around the shoreline looking for ducks, we launched the boat and, after starting up the small outboard motor, we were off.  After rigging up and trolling for a while we decided to try some jigging.  Picts below:

Yours Truly enjoying the sky and waiting on a nibble.

Chief and I sitting in a boat (I'm never one to state the obvious ;)

 My first catch, a fine cut throat trout.

And my biggest fish of the day, a good sized catch (if I say so myself).

All in all, it was a great afternoon fishing.  I once saw a prompt for an essay contest that asked "Why is a bad day of fishing better than a good day of school?"  I believe that anyone wondering the same thing has only to go on a fishing trip to Strawberry with good company, a friendly dog, and a fishing rod.  Whether they catch fish or not, they will return knowing the answer.