Vacation, final installment.

Back to the fishing. I ended up catching a 25", 5 lb walleye on, oh..., Wednesday? My dad, however, caught a 28.75", ~8 lb walleye. It wasn't caught at this location, though he has caught a 9 lb walleye at what people have come to call "Doug's Island," pictured here behind my folks:

My sister-in-law, however, came away with the prize of two walleye, almost back-to-back, being 28" long and 29" long (apparently, in some fishing groups, weight doesn't matter as much as length; so, my brother didn't weigh them, only measured).

The northern pike weren't biting nearly as much this year. But, the walleye fishing was a little off as well. We didn't always find them in the usual spots or by way of the usual fishing patterns. We are thinking this is probably because of the water level being up, the fish are adapting and are not following their usual patterns. Yet, my brother had one other thought concerning the northern: they're fished out. This seems a bit improbable, but it is possible. With the slot limits on Rainy, it's supposed to help the fish increase in population and not become fished-out. But, the northern limits are fairly liberal, and the walleye limits are rather conservative. Fisherman may be opting more for northern pike than walleye since it's easier. In the end, we don't know. Time may tell.

On the last day, as is becoming customary more recently, the family went out for a long boat-ride. Here are the kids, enjoying the ride. My niece's pig-tails went a bit wild in the wind!
My nephew didn't really want to let grandma take a picture of him, but with time she eventually got him to give in.

All in all, vacation was great joy. It was good to get out fishing once again. I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but it had been four years since I was able to join my family in Canada for the vacation. The fishing was good, the food was good, the family was good, and God is good.

P.S. This last mention makes me think of two things: 1) I was faithful to my promise which I had made only five weeks earlier: I did not miss a single hour of the Liturgy of the Hours; 2) vacation reminded me how much I look forward to priestly ordination. The primary benefit of being a priest while on vacation: I can say Mass for myself and not be deprived of it for six days as I was this year since the closest daily mass was at least 35 miles away.

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My brother just sent me this picture of my larger walleye: