It's true.
Eli loves his boat.
A few weekends ago , Eli finally took off for an expedition fishing and camping and boating trip to the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.
It's where the REALLY big fish hang out, and they think they are oh-so-cool because they live in the 'burbs. Know what I'm saying?
Eli and a coworker buddy of his took off Friday, July 20th, from work, and left at about 2 am in the morning to take advantage of the calm winds.
2 am in July in Yellowknife means sunrise, y'all.
That's the Midnight Sun, right there.
And, Eli's boat.
The darkness of the looong winter exhasts me, and I must say that I was surprised to discover that the light of the looong summer days exhausts me, too.
Yellowknife is home of the extremes... extreme beauty and extreme exhaustion, I guess.
But the beauty is amazing, isn't it?
Isn't Eli well-trained?
He's been working on making that horizon straight when he snaps a picture to make his photographer hobbyist wife happy, and the pictures from this trip are outstanding!
Eli says this was totally worth waking up at 2 am.
About 2 hours later, the boys arrived in the East Arm, and headed to a secluded island protected island (yes, that's not a typo...) that Eli had picked out long before with his charts and maps.
He's an obsessive planner, and it pays off on these elaborate trips.
Oh, and Eli loves his boat. Did you know that? He loves those motors.
Eli said the weather was perfect and the fishing was amazing. He said that at one point they were getting a big fish every 10 minutes!!
They saw two moose on the trip, too.
This one was swimming close to the boat.
I'm assuming that Eli zoomed in a bit here, but even still, that's a close moose encounter!
The other one was on an island facing the campsite, but Eli said that he didn't get to the camera in time.
They boys ate well, a la Chef Eli.
This is their camp set up.
Eli snapped this one as his buddy reeled in a large lake trout.
His pal brought along his dog for company and protection, and Eli said that it was pretty cool to have a dog in the boat.
De nuh, de nuh, denuh-denuh-denuh...
Eli was so impressed with the trout. Even without a trophy trout, they were still among the biggest fish he's ever caught.
I like this one. The dog is staring at his master... "Uh, Eli? Are you sure master should be steering the fish catching aparatus??"
Eli like this one because you can see the two down riggers and rods.
Eli loves his boat. He calls it a fish catching machine. I know it's really his mistress.
Happy Eli.
Bird covered island. Look at them all!
This was the big one from the fishing weekend. 16.22 lbs. That's 7.36 kg.
That's waaay bigger than Twofour.
Eli and the Big Guy.
Yeah, that breath cannot be good! Man, Eli must be hard up on these trips.
At least he always has his mistress. The Boat.
Saturday night, Eli said that a thunder and lightning storm lit up the sky.
He snapped this from the boat as the storm approached, and as he headed back to camp.
Eli got back late on Sunday.
There are no pictures of his return trip because it was a lot windier, and he had to add an hour on to the travel time to safely manage the waves.
On Monday, however, he sorted out the filleted fish, and I found this in the kitchen when I went to check on him.
WHY would you need scissors and masking tape to fillet fish?
Well. Miss G really wanted to help, but the smell was driving her bonkers, so she improvised an ingenious stink-blocker all on her own!
She was so proud to be able to help Eli with the fish!
Smart Little G.
She loves Daddy. She loves fish. She does not love the smell. She loves tape, though!
And, Daddy. Well, Daddy loves his girls. And, he loves his boat.
