When you want to get away from it all, there's nothing like a fishing trip. Frans, Christina, and Pat (Christina's dad) headed up to Lake Shasta for houseboating and fishing on February 13-17, 2000.

We rented a houseboat from Silverthorn Resort and set off on our lake adventure. Pictures and our travel diary are below.

Silverthorn Resort is at the end of an incredibly twisty, winding road. Most of their boats were up on dry land, and only a few houseboats were in the water. According to them, they had only four houseboat rentals scheduled for the entire month of February. That means we'd have the lake all to ourselves!

Unloading in the rain wasn't a lot of fun, but it did provide incentive to make the job go quickly. The houseboat had plenty of space for the three of us - but it came with a few leaks.

Silverthorn wasn't doing enough business to keep their bait shop open, so we did have to make a quick trip to Bridge Bay Marina for minnows and night crawlers.

After stocking up on bait, we were off to find our first perfect fishing spot. Good thing Pat is so familiar with the lake - the rain just kept coming and made it tough to navigate.

Our first fishing spot was up the Pit River Arm, on Squaw Creek. Second Creek looked like a promising cove.

We tied up and anchored the houseboat, and started fishing despite the rain. It's a very good thing we all had rain gear. Frans caught the first and only fish in Second Creek. The weather eventually drove us in, and we bundled into our sleeping bags for the night. The rain and wind just kept getting worse.

At about 1am, ominous noises got us out of bed. The wind was so strong that it had blown us free from the shore. The movement of the houseboat in the wind had torn one of the stakes right out of the ground. We were banging around inside the cove, and blowing back and forth. Frans and Pat got things under control, and tied us up again.

We came loose again at 3am, and at 4:30... Finally, at 5am, we tied up parallel to shore and decided to just forget about it. If we blew free again, we'd just have to worry about it in the morning.

The next morning, we found ourselves blown far into the cove, but still floating! The incredible winds that night had banged the back end of our houseboat into the opposite shore - partially breaking our prop. We had to head back to Silverthorn Resort marina for repairs. The events of the night led us to rename Second Creek "Hell Creek", or "Cove of Death".

Once we hit the main lake, we found that incredible winds were whipping up whitecaps and swells 3-4 feet high! It looked more like San Francisco Bay than Lake Shasta. The wind blew so hard that we lost two boat bumpers and the lid for the trash can. Whitecaps were breaking over the front railing of the houseboat. The wind nearly blew the heavy metal front gate open.

Pat navigated our way to Silverthorn (broken prop and all), while Frans stayed in the back of the houseboat, and did his best to keep the small bass boat from smashing itself into the houseboat side railings. Christina took pictures. (Hey, sometimes it pays to be a girl!)

We later found that winds had been clocked at hurricane strength - 75 miles per hour - on the open lake at the height of the storm. The lake level rose nearly four feet that night.

After repairs at Silverthorn, we were back in business.

Our second fishing spot was up the McCloud River arm - a protected cove called Potter Creek.

Unfortunately for us, the big storm had driven all the fish into hiding. We tried and tried, but didn't catch anything at Potter Creek except some Zs. We were totally wiped out from the crazy storm night, so the sleep was very welcome.

In the morning we decided to take the small boat up the McCloud toward Hirz bay to look for fish. Before we got too far, Pat noticed that we were travelling with the wind. He wisely decided to turn around briefly to check what our return trip would be like.

Yike! We were bouncing over 1-2 foot swells, with the wind whipping water into our faces. So ended the great Hirz Bay expedition.

We decided to hop into the houseboat and head elsewhere.

For our third fishing spot, we headed up the Pit River arm, and found a great sheltered spot with lots of fishing possibilities called Panther Creek. By this time, the weather had calmed down significantly. We tied up and prepared to knock 'em dead.

About 3pm that day, we noticed some strange ripples in the water - not in one specific spot, but all over the lake. They seemed to come from everywhere. There was no other boats in sight, and the ripples definitely weren't caused by fish. It was an earthquake! The 2.8 shaker was just enough to cause tiny tsunamis. We had a little of everything on this trip.

We still hadn't caught anything, so Pat and Frans decided to head out in the bass boat. Just as they pulled away, Christina caught a fish. They watched from afar as she reeled it in and held it up for them to admire. Now they were more determined than ever to catch something.

Not long after Pat and Frans had disappeared around the bend, Christina caught another fish. Knowing that the guys would never believe her, she snapped a picture of it for proof.

Panther Creek proved to be a good fishing spot. We fished from the houseboat, and took the boat out to fish the nearby points and coves.

Final standings:

• First Fish - Frans
• Most Fish - Pat
• Biggest Fish - Christina

After Panther Creek, it was time to pack up and head home. We'll definitely be doing this again - but hopefully without the "Perfect Storm".