Made my first visit to the Enchantments and into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness last Friday. Packed my Wilderness Ultralite Float Tube and took a day trip into a well-known lake. Surprisingly, I picked a good day as I didn’t encounter any other hikers on the way up and just two groups on the way down and just a few backpackers at the lake itself and I was the only individual fishing from what I could see, or at least I was the only on the water for most of the day, there could have been a few people fishing from shore but I never got to close to them once I was on the water. I considered myself very fortunate and really appreciated the unexpected solitude. It is a bit of hike to get into the lake, but nothing too strenuous.
I did enjoy the cloud covered skies and it even rained a bit for an hour or so mid-morning. Unexpected but it was a pleasant surprise, helped keep it cool and I am sure it helped with the fishing. Beautiful country, saw some grouse on the hike back down and tried to take some pics/video of them with my GoPro the pics didn’t turn out well.
I am a bit conflicted when it comes to posting reports, especially when it comes to smaller and less known destinations. However, I enjoy reading others reports and those reports have been beneficial to me in discovering new water to explore and enjoy, so hopefully others that are willing to do a little research or already know about this lake can benefit. The pictures make it obvious to those that have been there, so my attitude is “When you know, you know” .
The reason why I fished this lake was to catch a species of fish that I have not caught on the fly yet. Unfortunately, I was unable to catch that fish but ended up catching some nice Westslopes, which I knew where in the lake but was again pleasantly surprised on the quality. Awesome bycatch!
The species I was after are more commonly known to be deeper in the water column and are more piscivore, so I was fishing a heavy sinking line with big white buggers and heavy streamers. The cutties would hit as I moved up from the depths and they didn’t mind hitting the big flies, especially in the upper few feet of the water column and when stripped in quickly.
I would recommend the Wilderness Ultralite Float Tube - perfect for these types of trips.
Overall it was ended up being a terrific day and even though I didn’t get my targeted species, the hike and a dozen of these cutties made the trip worthwhile.
Peach
I did enjoy the cloud covered skies and it even rained a bit for an hour or so mid-morning. Unexpected but it was a pleasant surprise, helped keep it cool and I am sure it helped with the fishing. Beautiful country, saw some grouse on the hike back down and tried to take some pics/video of them with my GoPro the pics didn’t turn out well.
I am a bit conflicted when it comes to posting reports, especially when it comes to smaller and less known destinations. However, I enjoy reading others reports and those reports have been beneficial to me in discovering new water to explore and enjoy, so hopefully others that are willing to do a little research or already know about this lake can benefit. The pictures make it obvious to those that have been there, so my attitude is “When you know, you know” .
The reason why I fished this lake was to catch a species of fish that I have not caught on the fly yet. Unfortunately, I was unable to catch that fish but ended up catching some nice Westslopes, which I knew where in the lake but was again pleasantly surprised on the quality. Awesome bycatch!
The species I was after are more commonly known to be deeper in the water column and are more piscivore, so I was fishing a heavy sinking line with big white buggers and heavy streamers. The cutties would hit as I moved up from the depths and they didn’t mind hitting the big flies, especially in the upper few feet of the water column and when stripped in quickly.
I would recommend the Wilderness Ultralite Float Tube - perfect for these types of trips.
Overall it was ended up being a terrific day and even though I didn’t get my targeted species, the hike and a dozen of these cutties made the trip worthwhile.
Peach