I failed to make an eastside trip in May. My loss, I suppose. But I planned to make up for it in June. Took off Thursday, June 5, Chopaka bound. The "grade" is still dusty and slow, but it always feels good to get that first glimpse of the lake I have seen so many times. My friend had arrived almost an hour before me and had begun making camp in one of the sites we have used before. Once camp was set up it was time to "test the waters." As has been mentioned elsewhere, the lake is a few feet lower than it has ever been in my experience. I guess this is due to issues with the outlet control dam or a tributary, or both. The upshot is that the shallow south end of the lake is now even shallower. And the water there warmed to 70*, which ain't comfortable for rainbow trout. And there weren't many using that part of the lake.
As I set out to "test the waters," I turned on my Garmin depth finder. Or, I should say, attempted to turn it on. It wouldn't. I tried my extra battery, knowing that both were fully charged when I left home. Tried my friend's battery too. Fiddled with all the connections. Still wouldn't work. I leave my Garmin permanently mounted in my pram. Perhaps the years of bouncing up and down Chopaka grade and other rough roads isn't such a good idea for a sensitive electronic doo dad. So I was fishing blind, but I know the general depths of the areas I fish, so I hoped this wasn't going to matter very much. It didn't. I never got a strike. Same on Friday and Saturday, except for two missed rises to a dry. That was it. And then it was super windy on Sunday. Skunked at Chopaka. First time as far as I can remember, and I've fished this lake off and on since 1972 or 73. We decided to blow this pop stand and go try another lake.
Was gonna try Blue, but the whitecaps turned us away. So we went to a small unnamed lake to try and get out of the wind. Fished it last year and it was pretty good. It was windy there too, but not so bad that we couldn't fish or get our anchors to hold. Weird; not a single bite for either of us. I must suck at trout fishing. Returned to Blue on Monday and got a 13" trout almost right away. Then nothing. I mean nothing, as in I caught nothing the rest of the day. Although I did hook and lose a couple. My fishing buddy enjoyed limited success by hooking and catching a few. OK, three lakes over 5 days now, and I have a single trout to show for my effort. I really suck at trout fishing.
We retreated to Omak and met a couple other friends who always enjoy lights out fishing wherever they go. My friend and I decided to try a brook trout lake the next day while our friends decided to fish Blue. So they could show us up, I suppose. The morning started slow, and we had a hard time locating fish although we heard that fishing had been good there. By lunch time we started finding a brookie here and there. I told myself I would employ Troutpocket's rule of always moving after 10 minutes of no action. I hoisted and dropped anchor more times than I could count. Moving back near an area I'd fished earlier that morning I dropped anchor and followed up by throwing my line in the water. Fly had no more than sunk deep and wow!, fish on! And then another, and another, and another. I didn't pick up my anchor until the arbitrary quitting time of 4:30. It was a pretty good catch of brook trout ranging from 13" to 17". Only one 17" though and many 13 to 15". How many you say? If you know me I count my catch as 1, 2, 3, 4, and many, because I tend to lose count after that. I can only report that I caught many times many that day. So I began to feel that I don't suck quite so much at trout fishing. At least that day.
We met our friends in Omak again and all decided to fish Grimes Lake the next day since the public access of open after the doubt earlier in the season. Who the hell decided on having to back up, over, and down a dike to launch boats in the connecting channel to Grimes? I'm no stranger to rough boat launch sites, but this has to be among the worst. And there were other anglers launching as well, guys who were unaware or perhaps oblivious to boat ramp etiquette, that has but two concepts: "Move your ass;" and "move it faster!" And naturally the wind comes from the north as we row up the channel a quarter mile to the lake.
Fishing began slow for me, which seems to be a pattern for me lately. My friends caught a fish here and a fish there. Some nice ones, too. I finally caught a fish, a scrappy 13 incher, probably the smallest Lahontan in Grimes, I thought. Eventually I too, started to find some fish. Pretty good ones too, up to 21". However I had to retract my claim that the 13" fish I caught earlier was the smallest in Grimes because I caught two that were about 11". You'd think I was trying for the Ira small fish award or something. No complaints though. I ended up catching many times many trout that day, with many of them being pretty good sized fish, as trout fishing generally goes. Like the day before, the successful technique was dangling a balanced leech and chironomid at the end of my line, pretty easy with the aggressive cutthroat compared to the very light bites from the brook trout the day before.
After a second day of not sucking so bad at trout fishing I decided to call it good and drove home Thursday. Yesterday I washed my pram and trailer, and I think it's time to do a little touch up work on the pram while I wait for Amazon to deliver a new Garmin depth and fish finder. All the photos I took during the trip are attached hereto.
As I set out to "test the waters," I turned on my Garmin depth finder. Or, I should say, attempted to turn it on. It wouldn't. I tried my extra battery, knowing that both were fully charged when I left home. Tried my friend's battery too. Fiddled with all the connections. Still wouldn't work. I leave my Garmin permanently mounted in my pram. Perhaps the years of bouncing up and down Chopaka grade and other rough roads isn't such a good idea for a sensitive electronic doo dad. So I was fishing blind, but I know the general depths of the areas I fish, so I hoped this wasn't going to matter very much. It didn't. I never got a strike. Same on Friday and Saturday, except for two missed rises to a dry. That was it. And then it was super windy on Sunday. Skunked at Chopaka. First time as far as I can remember, and I've fished this lake off and on since 1972 or 73. We decided to blow this pop stand and go try another lake.
Was gonna try Blue, but the whitecaps turned us away. So we went to a small unnamed lake to try and get out of the wind. Fished it last year and it was pretty good. It was windy there too, but not so bad that we couldn't fish or get our anchors to hold. Weird; not a single bite for either of us. I must suck at trout fishing. Returned to Blue on Monday and got a 13" trout almost right away. Then nothing. I mean nothing, as in I caught nothing the rest of the day. Although I did hook and lose a couple. My fishing buddy enjoyed limited success by hooking and catching a few. OK, three lakes over 5 days now, and I have a single trout to show for my effort. I really suck at trout fishing.
We retreated to Omak and met a couple other friends who always enjoy lights out fishing wherever they go. My friend and I decided to try a brook trout lake the next day while our friends decided to fish Blue. So they could show us up, I suppose. The morning started slow, and we had a hard time locating fish although we heard that fishing had been good there. By lunch time we started finding a brookie here and there. I told myself I would employ Troutpocket's rule of always moving after 10 minutes of no action. I hoisted and dropped anchor more times than I could count. Moving back near an area I'd fished earlier that morning I dropped anchor and followed up by throwing my line in the water. Fly had no more than sunk deep and wow!, fish on! And then another, and another, and another. I didn't pick up my anchor until the arbitrary quitting time of 4:30. It was a pretty good catch of brook trout ranging from 13" to 17". Only one 17" though and many 13 to 15". How many you say? If you know me I count my catch as 1, 2, 3, 4, and many, because I tend to lose count after that. I can only report that I caught many times many that day. So I began to feel that I don't suck quite so much at trout fishing. At least that day.
We met our friends in Omak again and all decided to fish Grimes Lake the next day since the public access of open after the doubt earlier in the season. Who the hell decided on having to back up, over, and down a dike to launch boats in the connecting channel to Grimes? I'm no stranger to rough boat launch sites, but this has to be among the worst. And there were other anglers launching as well, guys who were unaware or perhaps oblivious to boat ramp etiquette, that has but two concepts: "Move your ass;" and "move it faster!" And naturally the wind comes from the north as we row up the channel a quarter mile to the lake.
Fishing began slow for me, which seems to be a pattern for me lately. My friends caught a fish here and a fish there. Some nice ones, too. I finally caught a fish, a scrappy 13 incher, probably the smallest Lahontan in Grimes, I thought. Eventually I too, started to find some fish. Pretty good ones too, up to 21". However I had to retract my claim that the 13" fish I caught earlier was the smallest in Grimes because I caught two that were about 11". You'd think I was trying for the Ira small fish award or something. No complaints though. I ended up catching many times many trout that day, with many of them being pretty good sized fish, as trout fishing generally goes. Like the day before, the successful technique was dangling a balanced leech and chironomid at the end of my line, pretty easy with the aggressive cutthroat compared to the very light bites from the brook trout the day before.
After a second day of not sucking so bad at trout fishing I decided to call it good and drove home Thursday. Yesterday I washed my pram and trailer, and I think it's time to do a little touch up work on the pram while I wait for Amazon to deliver a new Garmin depth and fish finder. All the photos I took during the trip are attached hereto.
