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Part 3

Because of the generous supply of Labrador retrievers (and long drooling Labrador tongues) that attend the event is termed the "Slobber Festival" by some.

During the evening, Chad, my brother-in-law Gene, and I fished the Yakima river just outside of West   Richland.  We did this to get the jump on my brothers who would soon be arriving.  There is no such thing as honor in my family when it comes to fishing holes and food; it's first come first serve.

My favorite bait for fishing bass on the Yakima River is good ole reliable nightcrawlers; for cats, I like fresh cut sucker meat.

There was a good bite on for small bass to keep us interested in the fishing.   The catfish were also on the bite.  The large bass didn't show.  Chad got the fight of his life from a 6.5 # catfish.  This was the nicest catfish that we have ever got on the Yakima River, and let me tell you for once Chad had some legitimate bragging rights over me.  I now have a mission; I would like to get a bigger one, I must.

Fishing was slow on the Yakima River today.  My brother Joe did manage to catch a nice bass.

Even though the Strickers are old hands at putting on an emu, Joe brought an official Hawaiian emu book this year that suggested the use of kerosene to start the emu fire.  Since I had no kerosene, I substituted the next best available fuel, gasoline.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now picture this; a 4' x 4' x 4' pit, wood and rockspiled to the top, a quart of gasoline, an out of work chemical engineer with a match, many happy campers sound asleep in their racks, and a need to start a big fire fast.

At 6 a.m. Joe and I did the honors of touching off the emu.  The gas went into the pit.  I threw a burning rolled up newspaper onto the pile and retreated to a safe distance.  Then it went; KAABOOOOOM.  The shock wave closed my eyes, knocked me back a few feet, rattled windows for blocks, awoke all the happy campers, and I'm sure destroyed any technical credibility I had with my guests and family.

I opened my eyes in time to view the fire ball and mushroom cloud rising above the roof tops and to catch a glimpse of the flaming rolled up newspaper returning to earth (sorry no pictures available).  The explosion triggered mass evacuation of all the surrounding tents and house.  Thank goodness the wood, logs, rocks, and boulders all stayed in the pit.  Things were good.  It was the best emu fire yet and I still had my hair and eyes.

After the fire burned down; the emu food was prepared; the emu loaded; and backfilled, we fished while the emu was doing the cooking.   Now the big bass had showed up, and I was the derby winner.  The biggest bass was 18 inches and since this picture was taken in my front yard you might guess that I wasn't practicing catch and release this day.

Eight hours after we covered the food in the emu, dinners ready.  You're welcome to take a little picture tour of a Stricker EMU.

After fishing, I let the dogs swim and retrieve.  Rad is still soft with the dummies but does return most to hand now.

Played Frisbee with Nuke.  Rad chases and returns the Frisbee; but, no catches yet.

Our first stop was the north end of Lake Lenora where we fly fished and casted spinners for Lahoughtan Cutthroat Trout.  We had no luck.

We traveled further north to the fly fishing only lake Dry Falls Lake.  We couldn't find good shoreline access.

We headed back south to a cliff on Sun Lake that I had fished when I first came to Eastern Washington.  I had done good then; but, not today.

We headed back south to the south end of Lake Lenora.   This is the shallow end of the lake.  We could see the large trout swimming around in the shallows.  Fishing by sight we caught and released  a nice Lahoughtan Cutthroat Each.