Hiked about four miles with 1600’ elevation gain to one of our mountain lakes - lake surface elevation just over 8500’. While exploring a stretch of the shoreline, saw a number of sporadic rises, but none within casting distance. Floated a small hopper pattern over a few patches of water that looked promising, but got no response.
So, I guess I’ll have to go back if I want to add golden trout to the list of fishies I’ve caught.
John
P.S. It was a great place to get skunked. The exercise and views alone were worth the effort. I’d go back there without a fly rod in hand.
When we started up the trail the temp was in the high 40’s and I don’t think it got much more than the mid 50’s over the course of the day. Almost perfect weather for what we were doing. We started seeing a light skiff of snow at about 8,000’, and obviously there was a decent snowfall above lake level - probably at about 9,000’ and up.
The lake rests in a cirque carved by a glacier during the last Ice Age - totally natural and similar to a LOT of the mountain lakes in this part of the West. “Totally natural” excludes the golden trout population, which are imports from the California Sierra Nevada mountains.
My home water really did take a beating this summer. The flows got really low and the water temps got pretty high. And the fishing got really slow. The last couple times over, before today, several of the trouts showed real distress from the conditions, wanted to go belly up after rather routine landing and handling, and required quite a bit of recovery time. First time that has happened in the five years I’ve been fishing this crick.
But it has cooled down, the flows got a kick and some cooling from some rain, and the fish are getting more active and dealing with the landing and handling thing quite well. Had a good day today, with most of the fishies taking a new version of the FEB October Caddis ( more like a scaled down FEB Hopper with a color change ) and the rest did just dandy with a Renegade.
I remember reading in Gen. Chuck Yeager’s autobiography, that he aided, maybe not quite legally, in stocking some golden in some mountain lakes somewhere in the western mountains. That was probably closer to Edwards AFB.
I was thinking if you got one of those lightweight inflatables and filled it with helium, it could pull you up the hill.
I rather suspect that Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks is responsible for stocking the golden trout around here.
The helium idea is interesting - but what to do when I got to the lake ?? Another approach to “fly” fishing ?? And if the wind came up like it did a month or so ago - 104 miles per hour - I could end up … who knows where.
John
P.S. Regarding “chilly”, the forecast in that area for Wednesday / Thursday is for up to 12" of snow. Good thing we hiked up there last week.
The one thing I can tell you about float tubing and inflatable pontoon, the fastest you can go is really slow. I have had thunderstorms get above me before I recognized the sound in the distance was thunder and headed for the shoreline. Knowing the 3 ft. of you sticking above the water is the tallest thing on the lake is not a reassuring feeling during a thunderstorm. Winds at 104 is when you get under something substantial and hope for the best.
Several years ago, a friend and I were at Earl Park Lake on the Ft. Apache Reservation, there was a guy and his wife who got there shortly after we did. As he stepped into his float tube, it exploded. We figured he aired it up in Phoenix or some other lower altitude, as we were somewhere around 8,000 - 9,000’MSL. It’s always best to wait until you get in close proximity of the lake for final inflation, a friend also learned not to leave his tube in the sun.
Down lower, there was a lot of damage from the wind. Higher up, it was not nearly so severe. Give credit to the Forest Service for getting on this trail promptly and cleaning up the mess, which included building a new bridge right next to the stump in the first pic. The old bridge ( traditional half sawn logs ) was among the debris from the windstorm.
Thanks for the trip and the pics John… you still are an inspiration for some of my trips… including the last one I went on… when the fog was thick and the rain was coming down and I am walking down the trail with an umbrella in my hand thinking … John says its ok, go ahead… lol and then I walk up on a bear at the beginning of the upper part of the trail and I say… yep Johns right, might not of seen that that if this was a perfect day and everyone was out… thank you again for your reports…
The trail we were on was posted for bear activity in the area. We both had bear bells ringing the whole round trip and I walked the entire eight plus miles with my rod / reel case in one hand and a can of bear spray in the other. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any bears, but at least we had an opportunity …
Hopefully I’ll have some pix of golden trout to post after my next hike up there - but that will have to wait until next spring / early summer, depending on the snow pack this winter and when ice comes off the lake.
The trail we were on was posted for bear activity in the area. We both had bear bells ringing the whole round trip and I hiked the entire eight plus miles with my rod / reel case in one hand and a can of bear spray in the other. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any bears, but at least we had an opportunity …
Hopefully I’ll have some pix of golden trout to post after my next hike up there - but that will have to wait until next spring / early summer, depending on the snow pack this winter and when ice comes off the lake.
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you still are an inspiration for some of my trips… including the last one I went on… when the fog was thick and the rain was coming down and I am walking down the trail with an umbrella in my hand thinking … John says its ok, go ahead… lol and then I walk up on a bear at the beginning of the upper part of the trail and I say… yep Johns right, might not of seen that that if this was a perfect day and everyone was out…