Fishing!

It finally occurred to me that I still had one last Canada blog waiting to go, pictures at the ready but no text put in to explain.

While the highlight of our trip for me was going to Maligne Lake, most importantly paddling on Maligne Lake, the highlight for U was a few days later, when we went to Prince George and a friend of my father's took us out in his MASSIVE pick up truck to Carp Lake, a few hours drive away. It is a provincial park, and a delightful one at that (although after three days in the Rockies and the gorgeous lakes there it seemed like a poor cousin, especially given all the weeds and bugs and motor boats whizzing by).

The boys climbed aboard our friend's motor boat and zipped off, leaving me in my kayak far behind.  It took me two and a half hours to paddle to the island where we had decided to meet for lunch, and when they arrived shortly after me I discovered that U, at least, had had a productive morning.

We ate our packed lunch at a campsite on one of the tiny islands in the middle of the lake and discovered that the wildlife (not just the bloodsucking type, either!) was very friendly! This little bird hopped around our feet the entire time we were there. Totally uninterested in any of the bread crumbs we offered, she seemed to prefer to gobble up all the bugs that followed us about - a win-win situation!

As we got ready to leave after lunch, she seemed rather alarmed and hopped about around my kayak.

We pushed off and discovered she had hitched a ride on the power boat, resting on one of the fishing pole rests! The first sound of the motor, however, and she was off, fluttering back to the island rather annoyed by the noise. (I don't blame her!)

The boys puttered off

And when we all reached the docks at the end of the day they had three more fish to join U's first. They were gutted and cleaned at a stainless steel counter at the docks and packed into coolers for the ride home. Four rainbow trout, two of a deep salmon pink, one an even deeper pinky red, and one a pale pink. The darker the colour the better the flavour, but all were delicious.

Our friend breaded them in a flavoured egg wash and herbed flour, then pan-fried them and added milk to make a cream sauce... Mmmmmm!  I *thought* I had a picture of our dinner that night, but can't for the life of me find it on either of my cameras or my phone. Sigh... I guess we'll just have to do it all over again sometime! :)