I received a call a couple of weeks ago from my middle son, Andrew, requesting a date that my sons and I could all get together to celebrate Father's Day and do some trout fishing. With their own families to care for and busy lives, we aren't often able to fish together these days. As it turned out, Thursday was the best fit for everyone's schedule... the target lake was Silver Lake in Pierce County... had spent many days on this lake years ago, when the boys were growing up. We were to meet at 6:00 AM and fish off the fishing pier at Henley's Resort. I arrived about 5:45 and was getting my tackle ready when a gentleman about my own age drove up and he too began to ready himself for the day. He introduced himself as Woody, said that fishing had been great the past several days... the color choice of Power Eggs seems to be Yellow (chartreuse) or Green.
The temp was 54 degrees, the sky cloudy and threatening rain. The water temp at 10' off the pier was 64 degrees. Had several heavy rain showers and then dry from 7:30 on. I set up one rig with Chartreuse & Green PE (3' leader), and the other with Chartreuse & Green (5' leader). I was fishing by 6:00. Fifteen minutes in, reeled in my first Rainbow of about 12", on the 5' leader... then a second one ten minutes after that... again on the 5' leader. My eldest son, Matthew showed up at about 6:30... showed him what was working and rigged him up the same way. He was into fish almost immediately and reeled in three, and I two more, before my other two sons (Andy and Wesly) showed up about 7:00... (always did have trouble getting them all out of bed early in the morning!... guess things don't change all that much). Anyway, fishing was great... Woody had limited and on his way home by 7:30... we all had limited by 8:30... the Rainbows were from 11" to 13" and very feisty.
Had an awesome day with my three incredible sons. Afterward, headed into Eatonville for a great breakfast and three hours of laughter and memories around the table. On the long drive back to Edmonds, I couldn't help but think how thankful I was for all those hours I had spent with my sons, teaching them to love the outdoors and the sport of fishing. Oh yes, countless hours of untangling lines and leaders, countless complaints of "I'm cold" or "when are we going home?"... but a day like this, many years later, seems to have made it all worthwhile.
Henley's Resort is super and the pier was in exquisite condition. Loved watching as many as five Ospreys at a time having success with their own fishing techniques. PTL!

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