Father's Day Bethany Pond

For Father's Day I managed to convince my wife to let me take my 2 1/2 yr old son Owen out with me for his first time in the kayak and his first time fishing.  I had to promise a nice quiet body of water so I thought we'd try Bethany Pond just west of Portland.  I know they stock it with trout in the winter and early spring so I thought it would at least be fishable.  Turns out that by mid-June it's just about completely covered with weeds and we could hardly find an open whole to drop our worm.  No fish caught, but Owen had lots of fun as we saw ducks and a large orange carp (koi?) under the lily pads. I guess I'm still looking forward to watching Owen catch his first fish. Here are few pictures...








As for what I got for father's day.  Well I got a nice card, a bottle of Hendrick's Gin, and a new side fire box for my relatively new grill so that I can now hot smoke things like ribs.  The grill itself is the Char-Griller Duo which uses propane on one half and charcoal on the other.  Now I just need a salmon to smoke.



Brian

Brian - hang on to those pictures, they are gold.  The best of times--congratulations and Happy Father's Day.

That smoker/grill is "filthy" as my daughter and her friends would say.

Rob.

Great pics with the boy! Next time you might want to try the Tualatin at Cook Park in Tigard, Smith and Bybee Lake out by Kelly Point, or Round Lake in WA.  All of those should be about the same distance from your house as Bethany (I think) and make GREAT kid friendly paddles with good fishin.  My favorite Father's day pic is my (no longer) little girl in the front hatch of my Cobra at Bybee.

Whoa mule! That looks like a vicious cooker! Whens the Bar-be-que!

Those pics are pricelss!  Thanks for sharing them!

Nice grill too!  I think she's trying to tell you to catch some fish. 

Nice work dad. That looks like good fun. The first time going fishing is fun eough but add a yak to that.. ooh man, he musta' loved it! Classic w/ the matching outfits.

That Q looks quite manly my friend. You need salmon for that sucker!

Z

The nice thing about taking a toddler fishing for the first time in a kayak is that they can't get bored and run away over to the playground. I think the ideal setup is going to be trolling for planter trout... lot's of paddling around looking at stuff and if a fish bites the trolled lure we stop and catch it.

As for the grill/bbq.  We had a party on  Saturday so I got the new smoker setup a day early.  After about 6 hrs in the smoker I had about 10 lbs of ribs ready to go.  Meanwhile, I had the whole propane side to grill up some veggies for our non-carnivore friends.

Brian