Day 3, Fri, we slept in, and I went down to the boat ramp for a few casts before our breakfast of yummy Zak-made protein pancakes. The night before, baitfish had been spraying up just 20 feet out, so my first cast went there, with a little wet fly...thought I snagged a submerged log for a second
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed over to some pretty little interconnected shallow lakes where we'd seen rises on our initial scouting stop. Zak fooled some pretty cutts and a bow in the deeper, middle lake.
I had a couple fish, but was mostly poking around the two shallower lakes looking at stuff in the crystal clear water. There were a number of places where it looked like tracks traversed the lake bottom - some clearly hooves, but others looking footprint-like. One puzzling set continued from the shore into what my Garmin said was 10 feet of water(??!) Don't know, not sure I want to!
We went back to Lake X for the evening, but quite a few weekend campers had shown up by then. We caught a few rainbows and headed back to our quieter lake for a tasty dinner of open fire grilled chicken street tacos ala Zak, accompanied by a pleasant array of IPAs, Belgian Trippels, AK Ambers, and for Zak, a nip of Scotch. Finished off with my family recipe ginger cookies. A couple other campsites were occupied that night, but overall pretty peaceful. The stars were amazing!
We fished Camp Lake Saturday morning after fried summer sausage and eggs, and got a variety of trout and char. Zak was mostly throwing his special little muddler fly (hey Zak - do you have a pic of that fly?) into riseforms and getting splashy takes, while I tried an array of wets/dries/streamers for mine. Oddly, Zak got lots of cutts, plus a few brookies, while I never saw a single one of either. Even using the same fly, my catches were mostly tigers, with a few browns. Some of Zak's:
It was peaceful and gorgeous at Camp Lake, and the fish were plentiful but not easy, so we decided to stay put for the day, mixing fishing, naps, snacks, and a beer here and there. Zak gave me his special muddler fly, and I copied his drop-it-in-the-ring tactic with pretty fair results. Some of mine:
And a visitor
Dinner that night was an amazing tri-tip steak Zak pre-marinated and cooked over the fire, served with a homemade chimichurri sauce, along with loaded potatoes baked in foil on the coals. Let me just comment here that if you're into food, Zak's your guy!
Sunday was a leisurely mix of packing up camp, breakfast of fried up leftovers-stuffed burritos, and more fishing at Camp Lake for a few more beauties before heading home
Many thanks to Zak for the invitation to join him for this super fun, chill, and fishy trip!
Anything I missed, Zak?
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed over to some pretty little interconnected shallow lakes where we'd seen rises on our initial scouting stop. Zak fooled some pretty cutts and a bow in the deeper, middle lake.
I had a couple fish, but was mostly poking around the two shallower lakes looking at stuff in the crystal clear water. There were a number of places where it looked like tracks traversed the lake bottom - some clearly hooves, but others looking footprint-like. One puzzling set continued from the shore into what my Garmin said was 10 feet of water(??!) Don't know, not sure I want to!
We went back to Lake X for the evening, but quite a few weekend campers had shown up by then. We caught a few rainbows and headed back to our quieter lake for a tasty dinner of open fire grilled chicken street tacos ala Zak, accompanied by a pleasant array of IPAs, Belgian Trippels, AK Ambers, and for Zak, a nip of Scotch. Finished off with my family recipe ginger cookies. A couple other campsites were occupied that night, but overall pretty peaceful. The stars were amazing!
We fished Camp Lake Saturday morning after fried summer sausage and eggs, and got a variety of trout and char. Zak was mostly throwing his special little muddler fly (hey Zak - do you have a pic of that fly?) into riseforms and getting splashy takes, while I tried an array of wets/dries/streamers for mine. Oddly, Zak got lots of cutts, plus a few brookies, while I never saw a single one of either. Even using the same fly, my catches were mostly tigers, with a few browns. Some of Zak's:
It was peaceful and gorgeous at Camp Lake, and the fish were plentiful but not easy, so we decided to stay put for the day, mixing fishing, naps, snacks, and a beer here and there. Zak gave me his special muddler fly, and I copied his drop-it-in-the-ring tactic with pretty fair results. Some of mine:
And a visitor
Dinner that night was an amazing tri-tip steak Zak pre-marinated and cooked over the fire, served with a homemade chimichurri sauce, along with loaded potatoes baked in foil on the coals. Let me just comment here that if you're into food, Zak's your guy!
Sunday was a leisurely mix of packing up camp, breakfast of fried up leftovers-stuffed burritos, and more fishing at Camp Lake for a few more beauties before heading home
Many thanks to Zak for the invitation to join him for this super fun, chill, and fishy trip!
Anything I missed, Zak?
Awesome report!
