New type of fishing (for me)
Due to the distance to our fishing location (listed at 387 miles on Google) the day started out for me at 1:30AM. I woke up got ready and was on the road by 2:00. I made it to my buddy?s house and packed his stuff. We were on our way and on the freeway by 2:30.
The drive went by pretty quickly despite the anticipation of fishing. We were making decent time I said as we drove through Rigby at a little before 6:30AM (considering that we stopped once for gas and once for food). We still had a little while to go but as we got closer it was clear that the anticipation of fishing was growing with both of us.
You see this trip was a first for both of us. For me it was my first time seriously fishing still water and my first time ever using a float tube. For my buddy (that fishes this lake regularly) it was his first time using a float tube as well.
As we continued our drive the lake came into to view at around 7:30. Even though the lake was in view we still had a little drive to the cabin. Once we arrived at the cabin we got out, the air was nice and cold and the sky was clear. There was not even a hint of wind and the lake was like glass.
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We unpacked our gear and started to gear up. Once we were wader?ed up, had the float tubes inflated and had the rods rigged up we made our way to the water. Once in the water we began to kick out to our fishing location.
We both began fishing. I will admit that it was a little strange for me to cast from a seated position but I managed. After a little while I heard my friend yell fish on! After fighting this fish for a little while he was able to land it. For his efforts he was rewarded with a 20? brook trout male starting to show his spawning colors. As luck would have it as my friend was fumbling around for his camera this feisty fish decided that he had had enough and flipped out of the net and swam away.
We both continued to fish when I learned my first lesson about float tubing. I was pretty far out fishing when the sensation of having to go pee was felt. I kicked towards the dock at the cabin. After what seemed like an eternity (and thinking I was not going to make it in time) I reached the shore. This taught me that the type of fins you have is very important. I just picked up some crappy outcast fins. My buddy had some better fins (they were not force fins but they were better than mine) and he made the journey back to shore with greater ease than I.
After I was done we decided to take a quick snack break. We BS?ed a bit and decided to get back out on the water. This time I took his spare rod as it had an intermediate sink line as opposed to the fast sink and density compensated sink tips I was using.
We kicked back out and started up fishing again. After a little while my friend yelled fish on again. I thought to myself mother f?er I must be doing it wrong. My friend was rewarded this time with a nice 18? cutt. This fish was more cooperative and he was able to get some photos.
We were fishing when the wind decided to pick up. At first it was not that bad so we decided to keep fishing. Just when I was starting to give up hope of actually catching anything I felt the tell tale tug. I set the hook and it was fish on.
This fish put a very serious bend in the 8WT rod I was fishing. I fought this guy (and got pulled around a bit) for a while. All of a sudden during the fight it felt like my line got snagged on something. I no longer felt the tugging of the fish; I was able to get free. When I reeled in I had some aquatic plants on my trailing fly.
Dammit dammit dammit I said I could not believe it. I finally get a fish and I end up losing it. I cleaned up my flies and went back to fishing. Just then the wind really was starting to pick up to the point where it was no longer safe to stay on the water.
We started to kick our way back to shore. This is where having good fins would have been handy. It took me a lot of effort to make it back even to a somewhat close location to the cabin. After making to shore we decided to take off as the wind would most likely not die down.
On our way back I decided to stop off and check out a famous fork of a river. In this area the wind was terrible. I fished the river for a bit with no luck and decided to head out at around 5:00PM.
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Despite technically getting skunked I had a blast on this little day trip. I got a chance to try out some new things and had fun doing it. I had a great time fishing and just getting out with a friend. In addition I was able to learn some key things on this trip.
We made it back to his house at around 9:30. I helped him get his equipment out and headed home. I will be adding more pics (including fish pics) to this report once he sends them to me. For now I hope you enjoy the few pics I took.
