"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot."
~Steven Wright
"Why do you always take two Mormons fishing with you?
Because if you only take one, he'll drink all the beer."
~Unknown
One of my early ideas when I created my Updated Bucket List for YEAR 77 was to repeat some of the activities I had enjoyed in the past but hadn't done for a long time. Fishing is an activity I did as a young boy, but I had initially left it off my Updated Bucket List. Linda, who is an active fisher-women, noticed this and contacted me with the question, "Why isn't fishing on your list of activities to do during your Year 77?" My answer was basically that I forgot, so she said she would plan a trip for us to go fishing at Panguitch Lake. We selected a date, and before I knew it she had arranged for Quent & Barbara to join us. She said we could rent a pontoon boat and all go on a fun fishing day - sounded great to me.
Bonnie & I drove to Cedar City on Thursday, June 21st to join the others on Friday for our fishing trip. The Coverts arrived shortly after we did and we all met at Linda's home for a good visit and a buffet type dinner served by Linda. Quent, Linda, Bonnie, Barbara and Chad are shown below preparing for a delicious meal on Linda's deck. Below that is a photo of the wonderful view of Cedar City from Linda's deck.
Fishing Day - We met at Linda's home at 6:30 am on Friday, June 21st. The fishermen, Linda, Barbara, Quent and I, left in Linda's truck and drove to Panguich Lake, about a 1 1/2 hour ride. It was a fun and scenic drive up the canyon to Panguich Lake which has an elevation of about 8,300 feet.
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We rented a pontoon boat at the little boat house shown in the first photo below and went out out on the lake to test our fishing skills (of which I have none). It was a beautiful, cool day, with a little more wind than we would have preferred, but a great day nevertheless. We brought the boat back in to the dock about 3:00 pm with our total catch of five rainbow trout. We changed locations on the lake several times looking for that great spot where the fish were biting. As it turned out we caught our fish in various places, not in one productive hole. Quent was the first to land a fish, Barbara was next, then Linda, and finally I was able to join these experienced fishermen with a catch of my own. During the course of the day, Linda and I each hooked a large fish that broke our lines and we lost them ( using fisherman truth, I believe they were the biggest of the day). Close to the end of the day, Linda caught and landed her second fish, the 5th for our group.
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The final catch -
We arrived back in Cedar City about 5:00 pm, cleaned up and met at Linda's home for a cocktail before dinner. Bonnie and Chad joined the fishermen/women and we had an excellent dinner at Chef Alfredos Italian Restaurant.
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This was a really enjoyable day for me and I'm glad that Linda initiated the activity. I know Quent & Barbara enjoyed the fishing as well.
A Little History: When I was a young boy my dad bought me a fishing pole and took me fishing a couple of times. Also, a few of my friends and I would ride our bikes to various places along Logan River to fish, and I remember frequently standing on the bank of 3rd dam up Logan Canyon drowning worms in an effort to catch fish. I was never successful. In a way, fishing was part of my plan as a young boy to have "My Own Money." Beginning when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade I sold punch on the street corner, sold worms and "night-crawlers" to fishermen, picked beans and thinned beets, delivered newspapers, tied mattress tufts at a local mattress factory, set pins at the local bowling alley (manual, mechanical setting machines in those days), caddied at the local golf course, and worked at the Logan Roller Rink. I didn't earn a lot of money selling worms, but I assumed my fishermen customers were catching fish, so I tried it for a few years. I was always more successful selling worms than I was at fishing.
As a boy between 10 and 14 years old, I spent a significant amount of time during the summer months in Star Valley Wyoming, staying with my mom's brother and his wife on their ranch in Etna and my mom's sister and her husband on their farm in Grover. I never knew why we called one a "farm" and one a "ranch." I loved the times I spent there, doing some farm work, but mostly playing with my cousins. I did a lot of fishing in the Snake River with my cousins while I was staying at the farm. We mostly caught White Fish and they were very good to eat. Later in life I did a little fishing with Julie's husband Jim, who is an excellent fisherman. He always knew where to go and what bait to use, things that I never mastered. I also fished a time or two with Mel and Linda after they moved to Cedar City. We fished up Cedar City Canyon at Kolob Reservoir and Navajo Lake. Below are a few photos I found of those days.
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