FINDING NEMO IN NORTH BAY

Hi again everyone! Sadly we are now in our last week before we fly back to England for one more year. Our five weeks at home have been very busy, filled with wedding planning and visiting as many people as possible, dividing our time between KW, Toronto and Stratford. We tried our best but unfortunately we just couldn't get around to see everyone. The good news is that we'll be back in April for two weeks and then we're moving home for good next July, five weeks before our wedding! (note: our wedding date is August 22, 2009...less than a year away!!!)

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Last week we ventured up to North Bay for two days of sunshine and fishing in lake Nipissing. This two-day fishing trip has been a tradition in Will's family since his childhood. Bri hasn't fished since she was a kid, when dad used to bring her to the fishing derby in Stratford! We left Toronto at the ungodly hour of 4am on Thursday morning and headed straight for the fishing dock with a much needed stop at a good ol' Canadian Tim Horton's along the way. By the time we arrived in North Bay, bought bait (worms and leeches) and got everything set up it was about 8:30 am. We fished for the entire day, left the dock to go for dinner at 5pm, and then returned to the dock for some evening fishing until 9:30pm. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired by the time we crashed at the hotel! It was a long day, but we were successful in catching some large-mouth and small-mouth bass. Bri didn't really contribute to this haul since the big fish didn't seem to like her...she was more successful in catching a ton of little perch and sunfish that we just threw back into the lake. But, she did catch one catfish that was a decent enough size to bring home!

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Will was the "boss" on the fishing dock since all of us were too scared and grossed out to touch the worms and leeches. So, every time someone needed bait, it was Will to the rescue! Will even had to take the fish that anyone caught off the hook because no one wanted to touch them. However, Bri worked up the courage to start hooking her own worms and by the end of the trip she was holding fish and even using pliers to try and get the occasional hook out of their mouths! She even kissed the first perch she caught! (see the picture for proof!)

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On Friday morning we were out on the dock again by 8:30 and we fished until 1:30pm. We then packed up all of our gear and headed for home with our 14 fish on ice in the cooler. We didn't find Nemo, but our final haul that we took home included 2 pikes, 1 perch, 1 sunfish, 1 catfish and 9 bass.

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