With the heat hitting the Puget Sound lowlands today, I went looking for cooler temps. High temp for today's trailhead was a relatively cool 79 degrees.
I wanted to check out a large, popular hike in lake, especially since this one have a couple of pot lakes in the same basin that were stocked with fry.
A bunch of crib steps and switchbacks over the next 2 hours got me to the saddle to drop into the lake basin. At least it was pretty.
From there, I hit the boot path to the pot lake. On the way I bumped 3 of these, this one was particularly displeased with me; I stepped about 2 feet away from it without knowing it was there and flushed it 15 feet away. Then it huffed at me several times and bluff charged me before stepping out of the path and letting me go by.
This pretty 1 acre pond got 150 cutthroat fry 3 years ago, but I didn't see any sign of fish in my 2 hours fishing around the whole thing.
The lake was swarming with mayflies laying eggs.
I'm sure that helps explain the thousands of these guys.
I sat on the bank, ate my lunch, drank plenty of water and went for a swim. It was the perfect temperature.
Once I dried off I headed back to the main lake to see if I could find some fish there.
I got 4 rainbows, all about 8 inches. I did sight 3 LARGE fish on my side of the point and was able to fish that water, but nothing doing.
After a couple hours there it was time to head home.
I wanted to check out a large, popular hike in lake, especially since this one have a couple of pot lakes in the same basin that were stocked with fry.
A bunch of crib steps and switchbacks over the next 2 hours got me to the saddle to drop into the lake basin. At least it was pretty.
From there, I hit the boot path to the pot lake. On the way I bumped 3 of these, this one was particularly displeased with me; I stepped about 2 feet away from it without knowing it was there and flushed it 15 feet away. Then it huffed at me several times and bluff charged me before stepping out of the path and letting me go by.
This pretty 1 acre pond got 150 cutthroat fry 3 years ago, but I didn't see any sign of fish in my 2 hours fishing around the whole thing.
The lake was swarming with mayflies laying eggs.
I'm sure that helps explain the thousands of these guys.
I sat on the bank, ate my lunch, drank plenty of water and went for a swim. It was the perfect temperature.
Once I dried off I headed back to the main lake to see if I could find some fish there.
I got 4 rainbows, all about 8 inches. I did sight 3 LARGE fish on my side of the point and was able to fish that water, but nothing doing.
After a couple hours there it was time to head home.
I've wanted to fish that one for quite some time. I used to hike up to its popular SW neighbor back in the day for exercise. I would hustle up, find my favorite rock and then cast out a dry on a long line and let it sit while I stretched. It was actually the best way to catch the bigger spooky ones. Then I would walk/jog back down. Man, to be young again.
