WDFW stocked Lake Nahwatzel last week with about 5500 12 oz rainbows and it was time to get back out there. I've fished plenty during the winter but that was less fishing and more battling the weather and cold and wind and praying for a bite. It was nice to get back out there and is only making my anticipation build for the beginning of the season. I decided that it would be a good day to go out and have a little competition with my brother. He and my daughter in his boat and me and my nephew in mine, first boat to ten fish wins! So we packed up all our gear and both boats got out there. We've playfully named our vessels these last few months. My canoe is now called "Big Mac" for Mackinaw canoes and my brother named his little dinghy the "Sea Hag", I personally call it "The Hag of the Sea" after all the Carnival Cruise Line boats.

We started fishing around 10:30 and both boats went straight to the little cove off to the right from the launch. Neither of us got bites and so we slowly trolled to the old dilapidated trestle in the north east part. I had been playing with a lot of bites once I got there but my brother was the first to pull in a fish. We battled back and forth the Sea Hag taking a convincing lead early 6-3. My nephew got his line stuck in the motor and couldn't seem to get his hook in the water very much but like the tide and wind things change. My nephew quickly went on a terror pulling in five fish in the next hour and at one point we had a double header, the nephew was limited out. 9-8 at that point. I just needed that one last bite and while getting guff and smack talk from our competitor I pull in the last fish right in front of them. Everyone agreed it was fun to play around with each other like that and making a game of it. We trolled wedding rings with worms like usual. Can't wait for next time. The picture shows 18 of the 19 fish we caught, Justin never got his fifth, I'm not in the picture. My daughter decided to let one of her own go because she felt bad for it. Funny it reminded me of that sea dollar story about it might not matter to us but it sure mattered to that little guy.

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