Cold Lake, camping and a fish story

We are currently enjoying one of the last great heat waves that we can probably expect to enjoy before summer slips into fall. With temperatures hovering around the +30 degree mark, we considered it fantastic that we had chosen this past weekend to drive to Cold Lake to do some camping and fishing.

Mike, Angie and I hit the highway Friday afternoon and got to Cold Lake around 4 p.m. We were visiting our friends Jody and Elaine there, so they met us at the provincial park and had already reserved our campsites for us. A quick unpack, tent set-up and it was straight into some beer and visiting. We called it an early'ish night on Friday because we knew we were going to catch the "big one" the next day (or at least that's what we hoped).

We hit the lake around noon on Saturday, loaded with the right lures to supposedly catch some lake trout, minnows to entice the fishies, some snacks and enough optimism to float the boat practically. After nearly 5 hours on the water and crossing to various different "hot spots" on the lake, all we caught was one undersized jackfish that we had to let go. I kept thinking of the first time Will and I met our friend A-M in Manly last April. Her hubby and boys were enthusiastically fishing off the breakwater, but it didn't look like they had caught anything substantial. You had the right idea A-M ~ there should've been a fish 'n chip shop up the road that we could've invaded and called it our own catch! We called it a day finally and went back ashore in search of some ice cold beer.

The campsite got hopping as we over-compensated with no fish by grilling every kind of meat known to man (steak, deer, hot dogs, chicken, pork etc). Jody and Elaine had some of their friends come to visit and we were up until 1:30 just having some laughs and drinking.

Although we wanted to get out in the boat one last time yesterday, the temperature was just too hot and we were too tired from Saturday. We pulled out of the park around noon and went to Jody and Elaine's for a bit of a visit before hitting the highway back to Edmonton. I have to say I am officially glad that I was home this summer for all of the adventures I've been having, the friends I've reconnected with and the new faces I've met.