Bear River Lake 7/17-7/20 (late report)

Sorry for the late report, got busy this week catching up from our annual karate camp and getting ready for a trip to Kauai next week (woo!), so it took me a while to upload photos.  

This year we again held my karate club's annual summer training at Bear River Lake.  



Last year we were there in August; the water level was much higher this year, 208' at the dam compared to 180' last year.  The deeper water gave me great hopes of catching a trout or three to enjoy over the campfire (and to end my wife's endless ribbing over my "never catching anything when we go camping").  Alas, it was not to be...  

We arrived Friday afternoon, set up camp and had a delicious meal of curry rice that my wife and one of our friends prepared.  Saturday morning brought the first training session of the weekend...



I won't bore you with more karate pics, other than this one of my loving wife showing me her usual level of affection.



After training we had some lunch and headed to the lake for some recreation and maybe a little fishing.  I had brought 4-5 rods for our family friends to use, as well as any of my students who wanted to give it a shot.  Some views of the lake:

One of my students and his girlfriend on rented kayaks.  When they floated up I lectured them about the rental life jackets working much better on their bodies than sitting in the yak:


My wife tooling along in lurker Ryan's loaned kayak (thanks Ryan!):


Our friends enjoying the good life:


Me and my lovely wife on the water:


Fishing Saturday was dead due to a plethora of PB'ers and jet skis that we just loud enough to be annoying.  I tried trolling a variety of lures, as well as the old Powerbait & 'crawler combo...no love though.  We left in the early afternoon to be back for a 5:00 training session...right as the water started looking fishy.    My wife mocked me at dinner while my best buddy Shiro studiously ignored her...sometimes I envy his near-deafness:


Sunday morning brought more training, and afterward many of my students left for home.  We headed back to the lake, hoping to find that many of the PB'ers had also packed up early.  Unfortunately it looked like quite a few of them were also making a long weekend out of it because the lake was still pretty busy.  In an attempt at avoiding the crowd we loaded the yaks up and made a caravan to a quieter "beach" near the dam:



One of our friends and their 2.5 year old boy on Ryan's kayak.  This was his first camping trip and he had a blast:


I saw several older guys trolling in the deep area near the dam, but none of them admitted to catching anything.  We stayed at lakeside for most of the day, fishing from both the bank and me from my Hobie.  I tried the same methods as the day before, casting & trolling different lures and even dropping wads of Powerbait down deep...all to no avail.  I knew that my wife would take great joy in mocking me yet again, and that knowledge was assured when I returned to the beach to find that my friend had actually caught a small trout from the bank.  I was happy for him, and gave my wife the evil eye as I congratulated him.  She giggled mercilessly.


After a long day in the sun we headed to the resort for a luxurious shower (our usual Sunday evening treat) and then back to the campsite for dinner.  Our friend Naomi joined my wife in the "Pete didn't catch anything again" mocking, saying that she was thankful that she at least had something to eat:


Because of this, I post the following unflattering photo as retribution:


We also found a new use for a parked kayak:


After yet another awesome dinner we enjoyed smores over the campfire, then retired in anticipation of the traditional Monday morning blueberry pancake feast, which was awesome as usual:


In all, it was a great weekend (even if I didn't catch any damn fish!) and I'm looking forward to making arrangements for next year's camp.  Someone told me that Eagle Lake has group sites...I find that I'm starting to plan these trips around fishing, not karate.  Don't tell my wife!  

great report!  Definitely good for a Sunday evening smile (but i don't think I would survive the retribution photo posting...)

Great report, it looks like everyone really enjoyed themselves. I can feel your pain about being harassed for not catching anything, my wife has been counting all the money I have spent this year in pursuit of catching something and reminds me that she is not getting any return on the investment.    I just keep telling her it takes time and I am constantly learning. I must admit, I am getting a bit nervous, better catch something soon.

Thanks for the report and pics,
Ray