Mr. Redneck Hillbillies loves fishing - especially flyfishing, and its even better when it's on a pristine mountain reservoir lake that is really only fishable for two short months a year.
We missed opening day, because the weather was just awful and spending a day in a little boat getting soaked didn't really appeal to me at all. July 2nd was a little better and we did get rained on a little bit here and there but for the most part it was a great day for throwing a fly on the water.
Ross lake is a single, barbless hook lake with a bait ban. The lake itself spans across the border between the north cascades of the US and the skagit valley of southern BC. The water level fluctuates and the Canadian side is empty for many months of the year so we like to fish it when we can. No gas motors are allowed in the river section so we just bring the small Lund and an electric troller for Ross.
I don't fish very often, but I like to come along anyways just to be in the great outdoors, enjoying the experience in my own way, watching and listening to wildlife, manning (or woman-ing) the anchor, and snapping pictures and short video clips. I just uploaded this video tonight - check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K30dQ0mY0pQ
It's only 4 and a half minutes long, and covers an entire day from hooking up the fishing skiff to the vehicle, snapshots of the 46 km drive down the gravel road, the provincial park marker, dock and plaque describing how this reservoir lake came to be, three of the four fish caught, and some scenic views and wildlife. Four minutes is probably the outer limit of attention span of 90 percent of the youtube viewers.
I also made some products with a couple of the photos I took that afternoon
This is one of our anchors, as seen through the shallow river water on the rocky river bottom. I edited it a little to give it a surreal dreamlike quality. Here I am showing it on a two sided business card for fishing supplies, or guide services and the like.
Next up is the little wood cabin type building along the edge of the lake.On some evenings, park attendants or rangers give slideshow presentations and talks about the lake or its wildlife. We once watched an informative show on Owls there after a long day of fishing - but we packed it up early to get home before nightfall this time around.
These wild orange tiger lillies are small and grow along the sides of the road. There are other types of wildflowers like daisies and fireweed but I liked these the best and made the Mr. stop so I could snap a photo of them. I didn't realize they were actually tiger lilies until I googled them at home because they are so much smaller than my garden version, and fully open early.
I've got a few more photos earmarked for products too, but they'll have to wait for another day.
Fish on!
