First I want to start this by saying thank you to all of you that gave their input on where I should fish, it was an immense help. Ripper, Sorry I missed you at Banks, we will have to hook up when I am back home for good. 7mmfan, thank you for the Wynoochee tip, no fish but beautiful place. And most of all I want to thank my amazing wife Britny. Aside from raising a 1 year old all by herself for the last 11 months she went and bought our new truck and camper all by herself. She is a true "keeper"
We started this adventure with a trip to the Pacific Beach on the 26th-28th of June. I was able to stop and donate some of my hard earned money to Cabelas on the way to the coast. Picked up a couple nice rod and reel set ups that I was able to break in at Banks, along with a Camp Chef 2 burner propane stove and griddle.First night camped at a state park along the Satsop river, Schafer state park.
Very nice quiet park. I was able to wake up in the morning and caught a dozen or so trout, cuts and bows, on a Krocodile spoon. Then we headed up to Pacific Beach and I was able to do the surf perch thing standing in thigh deep water with my 10 year old "puppy" next to me.
He didn't think the waves were too much fun so he went back to check on his little bro.
The next morning we had to head home to pack for Banks but I was able to stop and check out the Wynoochee. Beautiful river!!! I will definitely be back.
While we were at home we had to go to Chase's last swim lesson before leaving for banks
Headed up to Banks lake June 30th and came home on the morning of the 4th. We camped on the public land at the end of Barker Canyon road. The new truck and camper did great.
It was my first time staying there and I would chose that spot over the state park from now on. It was really nice to have a lot of room with out too many other people around, and the boat being tied up 10 meters away was nice too
The fishing wasn't the greatest, but from talking to others it sounds like we did better than most that were out. we got a good number of perch, and smaller bass. The wind was howling on the 2nd and we didnt go out but the fishing picked up on the 3rd. 3 walleye for my brother and a walleye and decent smallie for me.
Other than fishing, there was alot of relaxing with family and enjoying being back in Washington.
We came home the morning of the 4th, and left again the morning of the 6th. This time it was only a day trip, Richland, WA to Eugene, OR. 14 hours of "I will never do this again" while my 2 terrific passengers slept most of the time. Oh well it will be worth it. I dropped my boat off with Joe Koeffler to have him work some magic for me. That will be another post when I get some pictures.
The rest of the time was a couple of family dinners before the long trip back to Balad, Iraq.
On top of the great time I had, I just found out today that we get to come home for good a week earlier than originally planned and I should be done with demob and home by Labor Day
