Island Park, ID

We decided to get out of town for the weekend of the 4th and enjoy nature. We were going to camp the first night and then get a cabin the following nights. We got a later start than we had hoped for, and I really wanted to have dinner by the camp fire. It was already 7pm and we were still driving. We ended up stopping for dinner and when I realized we wouldn’t be eating around the camp fire I didn’t want to camp anymore. I figured we could stay in the cabin and then camp one of the next few nights.  We ended up spending two nights in the cabin and not camping at all. The mosquitos were awful! Aw well. I’m sure we’ll go again sometime.

Every time I see my reflection on anything I freak out a little. We’re getting so close!! Either that or I’m just huge. haha. This was Bode “takin’ pictures” with my tripod. He cracks us up.

Bode concentrating on catching a big big fish.

I was sitting back watching my boys fish. Fish were rising everywhere and this was near sunset. It was so pretty!

Fish On!

I caught two fish. One was this rainbow above and another was a nice brown. It was so much fun catching that brown! I casted my rapala in the perfect spot and he was liking what he saw. The water was pretty clear and I could see the fish going after it and then taking it. I really want to learn to fly fish! It really is a rush. I was so frazzled trying to net the thing, keep it’s mouth under water, keep an eye on Bode, get into a position where my belly wasn’t in the way and my back wasn’t killing me – but I could still squat down and hold the dang net AND not break my rod that was bending, etc etc. I ended up dropping the fish back into the water before we could get a picture. :( Clint said he needs to buy me one rapala a week so I can get stocked up. I cast them out in bushes, on the shore, wherever. If I’m not pulling it back and almost drilling Clint or myself, it’s breaking off. I need some more practice.. and more rapalas! Half way through our float I was out of them and didn’t do so well with my other lures and spinners.

We were surrounded by flies on the river! The water was just covered in them. Clint rowed most of the time and helped my crazy self try to fish, but he did end up throwing some dry flies towards the end. He caught a bunch of “dinks” as he calls them. None really picture worthy. Bode LOVED touching the fish and seeing us reel them in.  We floated from about 5:30-6 to 10:00pm! It went by really fast and Bode was great, for the most part. I made sandwiches along the river and it was so peaceful just floating along. I was feeling bad we kept Bode out so late, but once we got back to the cabin he jumped on beds forever and didn’t even get to sleep until almost midnight!

Jumping on the bed in the middle of the night. He was so full of energy.

He always does great in the car. He was throwing a diaper wipe at Clint and Clint would throw it back at him. Those two can make a game out of anything I tell ya.

This restaurant was newly remodeled and pretty good! For once in my life I picked better food than Clint. :) I was enjoying my wonderful meal while Clint kept talking about how good mine was. I gave him some, of course.

We were looking for big springs - which is where you can feed monster fish bread. Clint turned off a little bit too soon and we came across this beautiful river and bridge. The water was so clear and you could look in and see fish everywhere! It was really cool. He didn’t have his rod and I was really wishing he did!

We ended up throwing some of the bread we had to the fish down below the bridge. You could watch them track it and gobble it right up. It was pretty awesome. Even Bode was able to look down and see what was going on. He kept wanting more bread.

We decided to walk back up to the truck and try to find this big springs.

We found it down the road and seeing the huge fish down below was pretty cool, but there were so many people there! Clint hates crowds and I think I am slowly turning into him. There had to have been 30 people looking for fish and no one could see them. Everyone had their ideas where they were and what was going on. We spotted some below hiding under the bridge and Clint figured out if he threw his bread under the bridge and back towards them, they would watch it drift with the river for a few seconds and go for it. It’s all about presentation!  Then this lady notices what he’s doing and freaks out!!! She yells to EVERYONE, “I found the fish!!!! They are under here! Everyone come here!” AHHH I wanted to slap her. I’m all big and fat and pregnant and we’d been walking around quite a bit so I was trying to rest on the fence, when swarms of people came and literally pushed me away so they could see. We were both so annoyed by then we left and headed back to our little river we mistakenly found. It was much better down there.

We had a great trip overall and Bode is STILL talking about his big big fish. That boy loves to fish, touch fish, look for fish, watch fish rise etc. Clint loves it and it really does make things super fun. We’ll probably head back up there July 24th weekend!