Took the oldest on his first backpacking trip last weekend. He's 10, so felt like it was time to get him up into the woods (a bit over due if im being honest). He'd done a few day hikes before, but nothing overnight. So i was wanting to do something relatively short, but with a pretty good shot at good fishing. Hit up a lake off the PCT. Was a short hike, but relatively steep. A buddy and I brought our boys.
First day went great. Hike went off without any issues, got to the lake and had it to ourselves, which was a bit surprising considering it was essentially on the PCT.
Hike was about a mile and a half with 1600 feet of elevation. Got camp setup and started fishing.
First cast, wee man hooks into a nice little bookie. This lake has a self-sustaining population of bookies from when it was planted way back in the 30s. They fight well for their size, and are everything you want from a high mountain lake brookie. We caught fish at will that night. Even though the fish were sporadically rising, I had no luck on the dry. Little black glass bead bugger did the trick though. Pretty much non stop action for our group. Kids were having a blast.
Day started winding down, so we cooked up our dinner and put the kids to bed. Sun started going down and A bank of fog rolled in as the sun set, was serene watching the stars come up and the fog roll by.
Next morning we fished for a while and the boys explored the lake. There was some snow still, which they loved (we made slushies with some sugar syrup we brought) and they had a blast finding frogs, fishing and checking the area out.
There is another lake not far from there we spotted when we were out checking things out. We decided we'd get packed up and make a quick trip to this other lake to check it out.
This lake was pretty epic. It was unnamed on the .ap. so the boys named it "hopeless", to deter others from visiting...very smart. Was a very shallow heart shaped lake with some deep holes. Gorgeous little mountain brookies were stacked up in the deep holes. We'd get followers pretty much every cast, with hookups happening quite regularly.
Wasn't until we had decided to start heading back down that we discovered the other end of the lake was a big deep hole and there were some 16"-18" brookies hanging around that area. If you zoom in you'll see one of the bigger brookies we were seeing as time was winding down.
Wasn't in the cards to hike down and get to the bigger brookies....had to head out and hit the trail back home. I'll be back though.
All in all, great trip. The hike out went well, and the boys all had a blast. He did a little fly fishing, a little spinner fishing and he got to check all three of the things he wanted to accomplish off his list (clean his catch, cook and eat his catch and poop in the woods....)
Looking forward to spending more time in the woods with my boy.
First day went great. Hike went off without any issues, got to the lake and had it to ourselves, which was a bit surprising considering it was essentially on the PCT.
Hike was about a mile and a half with 1600 feet of elevation. Got camp setup and started fishing.
First cast, wee man hooks into a nice little bookie. This lake has a self-sustaining population of bookies from when it was planted way back in the 30s. They fight well for their size, and are everything you want from a high mountain lake brookie. We caught fish at will that night. Even though the fish were sporadically rising, I had no luck on the dry. Little black glass bead bugger did the trick though. Pretty much non stop action for our group. Kids were having a blast.
Day started winding down, so we cooked up our dinner and put the kids to bed. Sun started going down and A bank of fog rolled in as the sun set, was serene watching the stars come up and the fog roll by.
Next morning we fished for a while and the boys explored the lake. There was some snow still, which they loved (we made slushies with some sugar syrup we brought) and they had a blast finding frogs, fishing and checking the area out.
There is another lake not far from there we spotted when we were out checking things out. We decided we'd get packed up and make a quick trip to this other lake to check it out.
This lake was pretty epic. It was unnamed on the .ap. so the boys named it "hopeless", to deter others from visiting...very smart. Was a very shallow heart shaped lake with some deep holes. Gorgeous little mountain brookies were stacked up in the deep holes. We'd get followers pretty much every cast, with hookups happening quite regularly.
Wasn't until we had decided to start heading back down that we discovered the other end of the lake was a big deep hole and there were some 16"-18" brookies hanging around that area. If you zoom in you'll see one of the bigger brookies we were seeing as time was winding down.
Wasn't in the cards to hike down and get to the bigger brookies....had to head out and hit the trail back home. I'll be back though.
All in all, great trip. The hike out went well, and the boys all had a blast. He did a little fly fishing, a little spinner fishing and he got to check all three of the things he wanted to accomplish off his list (clean his catch, cook and eat his catch and poop in the woods....)
Looking forward to spending more time in the woods with my boy.
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