Catch of the Day!

Shortly after we retired, we couch surfed as we waited for our fifth wheel to be built. One of the couches we surfed was at Renita's sisters house in Keosauquia, Iowa. So it was a pleasure to have Pam and Roy come visit us in Wyoming and to couch surf with us!
Now they are both new retirees so the first order of business was to get Roy a Golden Access pass! we went to Manilla and stopped at the Forest Service office.
Roy seemed kind of chagrined about the whole deal but I was excited as the pass is the best deal for camping and visiting Federals parks and museums. Our pass costs 80 bucks a year and his is 10 bucks and a lifetime pass.
After that we went and drove the Sheep Canyon Geologic loop, where eagle eyed Roy spotted bighorn sheep resting on the hillside. After enjoying the view and eating lunch there, we returned to Manilla and shopped at the grocery store! Pam managed to find a tee shirt so all was well.
Wanting to take them salmon fishing, we bought licenses on the way home and the next morning we got up early and towed the boat to Anvil Draw, where we planned on fishing.
We first boated to the pipeline. It's always kind of neat to see the long pipeline with its suspension bridge hanging over the red rocks and the blue waters of the gorge. Shortly after arriving there we put two poles out and the downriggers were set, Pam saw the pole tip wiggle and grasbbed the pole! The fish didn't get on the hook. We did get more bites but they were small and we couldn't get a hookset.
Frustrated we decided to move. The night before we had talked with neighbors who were fishing uplake from us so we drove north and fished another spot with no luck. Now we were marking fish but they weren't big ones so we fished a couple other spots to no avail. We weren't worried as we had salmon in the freezer but darn it we wanted to put Pam and Roy on salmon. Driving futher up the lake, almost to Holmes Draw(foremerly Squaw Hollow), we spotted the neighbors two boats, Jody and John, and started to fish outside their trolling pattern. Sure enough a pole went off and Roy caught a nice kokeenee! The depth finder was marking really nice fish and now it was Pams turn! She grabbed the pole and started to reel. The pole thrashed as she fought a really large kokeenee to the boat. The fish dove deep but she kept the pressure on ad was rewarded with a really big kokeenee. It was a large male and was developing a spawning hook on its jaw! A beautiful fish! Soon Roy caught another big male. These fish were the biggest we had boated all summer! After a break for lunch we returned and immeadiately Roy caught the biggest one of all! Not only was its jaw hooked it was also developing shoulders.
It started to rain and we pulled in the poles, ony to find a little salmon on the homemade downrigger. No wonder the tip had been slightly twitching! Reaching the boat ramp Renita and I loaded the boat wile Pam and Roy looked for turitella fossils. They found a lot including the highly valued black turetella,(It cuts and polishes beautifully and is used to make jewelry. I was so jealous)!
Returning home we cleaned the salmon as storm clouds moved in. Lightening flashed and the wind whipped the lakes surface into whitecaps. We just got off the lake in time! Fresh grilled salmon takes mighty fine! Clear skies.