Thursday went exactly as planned. Uh, almost… We fished in the morning, planning on breaking camp at noon, then ferrying all the gear back to the boat launch. Once all the trucks and boats were back to the highway, we'd convoy down to Pinehouse Lake to camp at a resort on the lake. Ah, it's good to have a plan isn't it?

We should have known how it was going to go when on our way back from the morning fish we spied Darrin's boat flagging us down We thought it odd because we could see they were moving. The other odd part was that they still had all the gear in the boat that they had when they left earlier in the morning. Their plan was to fix up Darrin's trailer, so they had packed and left first thing, foregoing the fishing. When we pulled up along side, Darrin said, "Which way to the boat launch?" We all had a good laugh and then Gene and I looked at each other to see if we knew the way ourselves. We did manage to point them in the right direction and went back to break camp ourselves.

There was the usual commotion at the launch but all went pretty well. It wasn't until the trucks were almost back to the highway that things went south. Matt was driving Tim's truck up a sandy hill when it spun out and sideswiped a tree. The damage didn't affect the performance of the truck but they were stuck, and the chainsaw had gone to Pinehouse with Darrin's truck. Again with ingenuity and sweat, all the boys managed to get everything out to the road, eventually. Obviously Tim wasn't too upset with Matt. They rode to Pinehouse together and arrived still speaking to each other. Isn't insurance wonderful…

Now the sad part. We get to Pinehouse Lake, pitch our tents and launch Gene's boat. Four of us headed out to a likely looking island and anchored in about fifteen feet of water. We did manage to catch four or five, but they were all under a pound. When we got back to the fish cleaning station, it was obvious no one was catching anything worth keeping either. So, around the fire that night it was determined to head home the next morning. It was a day earlier than we had planned on, but I think everyone was looking for some creature comforts. Me included.

I guess the last bit of business is to declare the Pool winners. Both the prizes were taken by Rookies this year. The longest pike at 46 ½" was taken by Atol and the longest trout was Eddy's at 32". Each took home the tidy sum of $90, making it a worthwhile trip for some.

Once again, hats off to the whole crew, with a special thanks to Vic for being our fearless leader. Hope to see everyone on the next one!