Hi families!
The trip is off to an awesome start! The group has gelled, we're laughing lots, catching fish, learning about each other -- all the things we hope for in a Lillard trip. Here's a recap of our last few days; we hope you enjoy!
Day 2: The Housatonic River
After a restful night, the boys woke up with tons of energy, exhilarated to finally get on the water. We enjoyed some cereal for breakfast (Froot Loops were the fan favorite), and gave the boys the plan for the rest of the day. This was many of the kids' first experiences ever fishing with a fly rod, and they quickly picked up on some great techniques. Our first campsite has been such an awesome place, and one of the great parts about it is that we are right on the Housatonic River! We rigged up our rods, turned around, and hit the water hard in the morning.
Cade set the tone for the morning by landing the first fish of the trip, a beautiful smallmouth bass. Quickly after Cade's awesome fish, Mawson, Ashton, and Tucker hopped on the board, and the group never looked back. We finished the morning with a solid amount of smallmouth bass and headed back to camp for lunch! The boys scarfed down some turkey and ham sandwiches with a side of Doritos. We then hopped back in the van and made the quick trip over to a beautiful waterfall, with various creeks filled with trout and sunfish. Most everyone was able to land a sunfish, but the moment of excitement came when Mikey caught a fantastic tiger trout!
After some fishing, we played a game of backyard football as a group in a field near the waterfall. After the game, we loaded back into the van and went to grab some ice cream as a fun mid-day treat. We then arrived back at camp, where Jack, Barclay, Beckett, Aiden, and Ashton went for a relaxing swim in the river, while the rest of the crew was eager to keep fishing. The afternoon and evening were spectacular. Everyone was slamming the smallmouth bass, and we were lucky enough to land multiple different rainbow trout thanks to Tucker and Michael!
Ultimately, the defining moment of the day on the water goes to Kai, our "leader of the day" for Day 1. After catching his FIRST EVER FISH (which was a cool smallmouth), his SECOND EVER FISH was a TANK of a rainbow trout!!! Wow! What a moment for both him and the group fishing as a whole. We ended the day chowing down some tasty burgers and enjoyed time bonding and continuing to get to know each other around the campfire.
Day 3: Pike on the Float
After a restful night, we enjoyed a huge breakfast made up of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes while the leaders were tying up pike leaders to prepare for our float. Once we cleaned up breakfast and got everything straightened out, we loaded up the van with the rods and gear for the rest of the day, along with the trailer filled with canoes.
The boys were very excited to get back on the water, and once we got to our boat launch, we explained how much more difficult this kind of fishing would be. Pike fishing takes patience, accuracy, and finesse all in one. We floated down the Housatonic and came very, very close to multiple huge fish. Unfortunately, the huge pike were "short-striking" the huge lures we were throwing at them, but the boys were thrilled to even get the opportunity and see some of these massive fish follow our streamers very close to the boat.
Once we made our way down the river, and after some frustrating big-fish moments, the group came to the consensus that they were hungry and wanted to fish hard for the aggressive smallmouth and rainbow trout around our campsite. We enjoyed some tunes and were singing all of our favorite songs on our way back to camp.
Today was a special day for the group — it was Joe's BIRTHDAY! To celebrate him, we surprised the boys with plenty of cheese and pepperoni pizza from a local pizza joint, as well as liters of delicious and refreshing soda. While eagerly waiting on the pizza to arrive, the boys entertained themselves tossing the football and frisbee around and telling some stories.
At this point, later in the afternoon, the group was re-energized and ready to get back on the water for an evening adventure. We covered a new section of the river that we hadn't hit the day before, and tons of fish were caught. Most every kid was able to land at least one smallmouth bass, and we were lucky enough to land multiple beautiful rainbow trout. Fishing right after a short and quick summer shower, it was such a special moment when we looked into the sky and saw a beautiful rainbow! Catching rainbows with an actual rainbow in the background was crazy cool and led us into an enjoyable campfire moment where we played a popular, competitive couple of games of "Mafia." With such a jam-packed and fun day, the boys were exhausted, and we called it a night with much excitement to fish a local kettle pond to try to knock off a couple more species!
Day 4: Kettle Pond and New Water
With a little bit of a drive ahead of us to the kettle pond, we had a little bit earlier of a wakeup this morning, where we had cereal for breakfast. Once breakfast was all taken care of, we hopped into the van and headed to the boat slip. We carefully unloaded all of the canoes off of the trailer and let the boys partner up. Before we hit the water, the group's hunger began to linger, so we quickly made some lunch — turkey and cheese sandwiches with Cheetos, which were popularly added into many of the boys' sandwiches thanks to Jack's idea.
We had an initial feeling that this fishery would be tough because of how spread out, windy, and grassy it was, but the boys completely proved us wrong and tore it up for the little time we did spend on the lake. Kai had an amazing day on the water, where on his first cast he managed to catch a HUGE bluegill. Mikey followed Kai with a bluegill of his own, and Jack quickly hooked into a nice largemouth bass, adding to the list of species we have caught so far. Cade also caught a largemouth bass himself.
The wind picked up quickly, and clouds began to roll in with signs of some nasty weather, so as a precaution, we had to make unfortunate -but safe- decision to exit the pond and take our canoes back into the canoe launch. We headed back to camp and quickly made some sandwiches for lunch, and the boys had a ton of fun throwing the frisbee around to kill some time before we hit the river once again.
Because we had hammered the lower section of the Housatonic near our campsite so hard the previous couple of days, we drove 10 minutes up the road to a different part of the river with much faster and rockier water. With signs of weather lingering, the fish were a little turned off, but fortunately, Kai, Tucker, Michael, and Ashton were all able to land nice smallmouth. After giving it all we had for around an hour, Jack, Max, Aiden, Beckett, and Barclay went swimming. They swam all around the river, sharing jokes filled with laughter and fun times.
While those boys were swimming, Cade and Kai were determined to keep fishing, and the rest of the group was exploring around the river. Cade and Gavin worked for about 40 minutes in the very "trouty" stream, nymphing for some hungry browns. It was very impressive to see Cade improvements in casting, especially due to his "triple roll cast" that he perfected instantly. Unfortunately, these trout were being very nit-picky. He managed to stick multiple different fish, but they came off every time! Although it was frustrating for both the guides and Cade, seeing how close he was, it was still a great moment on the water.
We eventually headed back to camp for our final night at that campsite and began preparing chicken alfredo for dinner. While dinner was cooking, the group was gathered around the campfire playing the "Imposter" game, where some very weak poker faces were exposed, revealing moments filled with excitement and debate. After dinner, we continued playing Imposter, where Max and Aiden completely took over and dominated the game with their investigative strategies, quickly figuring out who the Imposters were in each round. Following Imposter, we ended the night with some delicious s'mores and games of Mafia, where Beckett took over and dominated. Gavin ended the night off telling some interesting personal stories of his own, right before the boys hit the sack, very excited to pack up camp and head to our new campsite on the Farmington River!
As you can probably tell, we're having a blast both on and off the water. This is an awesome group of boys - we're pumped to be out here with them.
Best,
Gavin, Joe, and William
