Fishing Forum

Riverrat77, Orvis1 and I made a trip down to the Boulders for a 3 day hike-in/hike-out floattube-a-palooza. It was the first time any of us had ever fished together so we all took a bit of a risk rocking a 72 plus hour fishing trip. I'm just glad they weren't weirdos I can't speak for the other fellas, but I had an absolute blast. 2 of the nicest guys on the forum and I would fish with you two again anytime.

We left the SL Valley at around 3:00 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and after a couple a short stops and some scenic views we made it to our camping destination with just enough light for us to unpack and set up the tent.





DAY 1: Cutts, and Tigers, and a Bear Oh My.................
We rose early and started our hike up to our first couple lakes. On that hike we saw several bucks, some elk and great big cinnamon colored Black Bear from about 90 yards out. Riverrat77 spotted it first and alerted me to the "Yogi" sighting. Orvis was about 15 feet out in front of us and probably would just kept on walking closer and closer to it had we not hollered at him to stop. Day 1 was our Tiger and Cutt day. We all ended up hooking into 20 plus inch Tigers, but I think I was the only one we pulled in any Cutts. Riverrat77 decided to donate the upper half of his pole to the bottom of the lake. Luckily, I brought an extra “just in case” rod that I was more than happy to let him use for the rest of the trip. He later greatly repaid my generosity as you will later find out on day 2.


The "classic" fish slipping back into the water as I take the picture picture








Day 2: I Almost Go For a Swim……………….
Day 2 was our Brookie (and a couple of SNITs) day. Once again we got an early start. We ended up fishing 4 different lakes and caught Brooks in 3 of the 4 lakes. Lakes 1 and 3 were more productive, deeper and much less swampy and mosquito infested. Lake #2 was later christened “Crap Lake”. Super shallow, chuck full of mosquitoes, no real good float tube launch points and pretty much unfishable from shore. Lake #4 was a nothing but a SNIT lake. About an hour and a half into lake #1 and at about 0730, I decided that while fishing Orvis’ fly rod I was going to let my rod and reel that was resting “safely” on the back of my float tube fall to the bottom of the lake. I was just seconds of away from plunging to the bottom of lake to retrieve it when RR77 finally managed to hook and pull it back up (thanks again buddy).









We decided to bring 2 of our catch-lings back to camp for dinner so I tossed a couple of Brookies into what I call my “live well” or really the back some-what water filled portion of my FishCat4 float tube.


Day 3: More SNITs……………..
We decided to try out another side of the mountain so we broke camp and started back down the mountain in order to start our couple hour drive to the other side.


We thought we were getting into a Brookie and Arctic Grayling lake. Unfortunately winter kill prevented us from getting into our 5th species of the trip or any more Brookies for that matter. The lake was beautiful, but was full of SNITs.





Great trip and great company. Thanks again guys. Feel free to chime in with any story I may have left out.
[signature]

Awesome post and gorgeous fish!

My wife and I want to hit those lakes soooooo bad after reading this. We go atleast once every year and hike our tubes in.
What were you doing well on this time of year?
We usually hit those lakes in Sep. and we use various nymphs.
Was the area very crowded?

Also, what lakes in the boulder area would have grayling? Never really looked into that but now I am a little curious.
[signature]

awesome report and pictures. looks like you a had a great time with plenty of fish. thanks for sharing [cool]
[signature]

What a nice trip! I love to read.
[signature]

Beautiful fish. Planning on making a trip to the Boulder mountain in August. Thanks for the report.
[signature]

Looks like a blast I love that area. NIce bunch of fish you guys.
[signature]