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”
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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
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