Back to Fishing and Catching

Today started at about 4 degrees warmer than yesterday (around 38 degrees) but, I didn't get an earlier start as my toes were still needing a little longer to warm up -- no need to get out any sooner and get them cold again.  So, it was about the same time as yesterday (around 10:00 a.m.) before I got into the Jeep and headed up the approaches of Wolf Creek Pass and made the turn to Big Meadows (just before the tunnel).  As the pavement quickly ended and the dirt road began, I could see snow drifts still at the edge of the road and deeper into the woods.  The road seemed to be in better shape than last summer perhaps because of the moisture and some road maintenance that coincided with the moisture.

The stream from the lake always has my attention as I drive up this road and today was no different as I imagined there to be some nice Brook trout somewhere in the numerous attractive pools along the way to the lake.  I first circled into the main area where the restrooms and boat launch are to get a full view of the lake and see if anything was happening -- noticed one guy on the handicapp pier bringing one fish in.  I was encouraged to see that and I headed over to the other side of the lake near the campground (which is still under construction) and parked next to two pickup trucks that must have arrived a few minutes before me (some of the people were just emerging from their vehicles (seemingly after getting additional layers on or off).

 

I headed off quickly after gathering my gear and a bottle of cold Gatorade to stay ahead of this rather large group of some 6 or 8 people -- all of whom seemed to have their fishing gear in their neat little zippered green bags.  My sights were set on the boulder field on the south side of the lake and I only hoped they weren't heading there too -- fortunately they weren't.  The trails were much wetter than last year and the little streams running into the lake were a couple times bigger than what they were previously -- therefore, I managed to soak my right foot with one mistep.  The trail through the woods still had snow drifts a couple feet deep and I tried to use some of the existing footprints where possible or stepped onto some of the nearby boulders or grass -- at times I just stepped on the top of the snow and hoped it would hold (it did most of the time).

After reaching the boulder field, I decided to stop there because the snow drifts farther on ran all the way down to the water's edge and appeared to be deeper -- no use getting colder and wetter feet before starting to fish.  The breeze was coming from the right and the sun was shining as I started casting into the familiar waters and soaked in the beauty of this place.  Within the first hour of fishing, I caught my limit and kept the first four -- released another four of about the same size over the next hour.  I headed back to the Jeep as some rain drops began to fall and was on the road back to the RV park by 1:00 p.m. -- eager to clean these first four trout of the season and get them ready for the grille.

Just finished eating the first trout of the season and its meat was a pinkish color and soo tasty.  Ask Tiger and I'm sure he will agree.  Now time to enjoy another sunset and think about which place to fish tomorrow.