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The Fishing wasn't great, but the time was With the weather playing silly buggers at the end of June. our 4th annual last day of school outing got cancelled. I tried a few trips out on the east end of Lake Erie with no success - no one but myself to blame for those days - wasn't really focused and it was new water. So we decided to do the delayed get away to Restoule. I have been there a few times and while the fishing has never been fantastic, it has been pretty steady. It had been a while since G & I had been fishin' bass, and he had yet to learn my favourite small water fishing technique - spinners. I could call it Aglias to be honest, because while I have boxes of spinners the Aglia 4 and 5 is my go to and it rarely lets me down. Looking at Fisherpete's success on Restoule stoked my interest,and the helpful insight of a couple other OFC'ers who pm'ed me added to the info. Thanks to you guys, you know who you are - much appreciated Our prime targets were bass and pike, with an "eye" for supper. Heading up on the Sunday, we got an excellent choice of sites, on the water around the corner from the launch and at the end of the Park. Nice quiet spot. The sun was high in the sky and beaming hot by the time we were set up. Peak time for fishin' - 2:00 in the afternoon of a sweltering day . But we went anyway. Headed out to a spot that never fails.. and failed. Hit a couple other spots, and failed. So it was time for a swim and then back to the site for garlic sausage from the farmers market and lessons for G on building a campfire, now that he is old enough to wield the axe. He's a quick study at this outdoor stuff We called her in early that night after the long drive and set up crossing our fingers for better luck on the other lakes the next day. Up early, we stopped at a recommended location and tossed spinners for about 20 minutes. Striking out, I said out loud my usual threat to all the fish at this point - " OK, 10 more casts and if nothing comes out to play, we're out of here" BAM. 1/2 inch into the slot. C YA later walter - . 10 more casts and we tried to find our way to the narrows. Now, to those who may have been wondering - those HDS 7 Gen 2 maps may be awesome for detail down on Erie and Ontario, but I don't recommend going WOT in the dark based on their mapping up this a-way we finally found the narrows and made the run to a back bay that had good recommendations. The sun was doing a repeat of the day before, clear blue skies and bright sun. Not exactly prime. Ah well, its fishing. I got G going pretty well with the chartreuse and black spotted Aglaia, making highly accurate casts and good retrieve speed. It worked - his first bass on a spinner was a beaut 19 inch fatty. This was a strong aggressive acrobatic fish and G had a blast with it. we continued to work the bay from end to end but with no great results.The screen was clean and whether it was worms and jigs, body baits, spinners or tubes, today was not to be our day. On the way out we stopped at the walter spot and found the mornings sibling - 3/4 in into the slot. G also got his first snot rocket on a spinner to make for another big smile for the day Back to the camp for more fire and father son chats. We talked late into the night about all kinds of things Next day greeted us with a cold front that blew in overnight. The temp had dropped 16 degrees from the day before, and the water surface had dropped 10 degrees.. It drizzled on and off all day. The fish were on fire, hitting everything we threw at them .... NOT. We did some travels and walks and talks. Next day was pack and go, home for a baseball game for 7.00. Karma?. A work week that was Thursday and Friday was a great way to get back to the grind - and watching the winds come from a mostly westerly direction, and maintain a low speed had me smiling. Fingers crossed that an easterly wouldn't blow in again and ruin it, on Friday night I sat on Windfinder, superforecast, Vineland station, and smiled. G had to babysit for a neighbour at one on Saturday, so it meant if we were going, we had to leave early. G's best friend J was helping clean and restore the boat for the O outing when my other half - smart and kind woman that she is - comes up and says, "are you going to invite J with you tomorrow, after all he is working pretty hard on the boat?" I looked at her like she had 2 heads. Early for J is 7:30 . But after almost 25 years with S, I have learned she knows things this big clod sometimes misses. 10 minutes later the boat is done and the boys have finalized plans for a SHORT sleep over. 3.30 m and I'm up. 4.00 am we are pulling out of the driveway. 5.00 am we are leaving a very quiet Timmies and arriving at a launch where we are the only boat!!?? 5:30 and we are lines set up in 65 FOW, watching one of my favourite sights: Just as it crested the horizon the first rod fired - and as always, it's the guest's fish. Great colours on this fella and still a bit of a kype on him? After a revival sing along in the well he was off to swim another day The biggest fish of J's life - and fight. He was so psyched! It was great to see. And now, it was like that sun just shone her blessings on me for the next few hours - here are a couple of crazy examples. We're trolling along and its got kind of quiet. I grab my muffin and say " look fish, you do it like this, "and I bite the muffin - and a rod fires; a little later, I say "G, I think they need some music, why don't you put on the radio?". And not 30 seconds after he sits down having picked his favourite (groan) station, a rod fires. Then I decide to change up a spoon, and as I put the blue money puke down, I say - they were just bored of those colours and really wanted blue - and the rod fires; It was crazy - at least two more situations like that happened. But the real capper, well I am not sure I will ever repeat, let alone beat, this - the dipsy fires, and as I pull it out of the holder and pass it back to one of the boys, out of the corner of my eye I see the lead core shoot out of the holder and drop into 180 FOW. Somehow I had got the handle of the dipsy rod on the handle of the core and pulled it out. I reach over and turn the downrigger to up retrieve, saying to myself - It just MAYbe snagged on the wire and the torpedo weight (PPPPPPLLLLLLEEEEAAAASE). And after what felt like an agonizing 30 minutes, but was probably only 1, sure enough, there it is: reel one one side of the wire, rod on the other, and torpedo weight underneath. I reach down, grab the rod butt and put it in the holder as G brings his fish to the back of the boat, in a cluster of dispsy, core and mono. I hand reel in Gs fish, un-cluster the incredibly easy to straighten mess and thank my lucky stars ( and my wife). By 9:00 am we had 9 in the boat and a bunch of laughs and high 5s. We didn't get any trophy fish - but we all got some trophy memories - and my forecast was right, ending up 11-14 for the day, catching a brown, a big laker a nice (albeit skinny) bow some coho and a couple small kings. and that's enough for my carpal tunnel fingers and one report, I'll close out with a few shots of the "day of grace" Man - you gotta love softwater season