07-13-2012, 06:10 PM
3rd and final day of PTO from work, and I decided to head back up to the Mirror Lake Highway with a friend to fish Lost Lake. Got there early, not early enough to watch the sunrise, but still early. The fish were eager to play, and it wasn't long before we were catching small brookies and bows from the shore using worms (on the bottom). I even managed one nice 13" bow, but it was about 80% head. Skinny as a snake. After a while we noticed a foul odor blowing around. It seemed to only become apparent when the breeze would blow a certain way. We both thought that maybe someone had pooped in the rocks somewhere nearby, but we were not about to go searching for it. We left at about 11:30 AM, and decided to head over the top and give Mirror Lake itself a go.
I haven't fished the lake itself in over 2 decades, so I thought it was probably due for a visit. Crowded. That's a good way to describe it. I am not surprised that the highway's namesake body of water was of interest to a lot of folks, but I didn't expect quite this many people on a Thursday afternoon. Noticed that the smell from Lost Lake had followed us, but we couldn't seem to figure out where it was coming from. Then we noticed a dead deer carcass in the water just down from where we set up. The stench was powerful, so we moved on to another spot. Ended up catching a few more small brookies, and rainbows, and even fished through, the water fight that erupted between the swarm of scouts in canoes out on the lake, followed by the screaming contest from the girls camp that was setting up to launch canoes. Luckily about this time the storm clouds had gathered up enough to dump a small amount of wind and rain from the skies, that they all cleared out, and after about 5 minutes it stopped, and the canoes never returned.
After running out of nightcrawlers, we decided to head on home. Delightful, but smelly day up along UT150.
Plans are to go back tomorrow morning.
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I haven't fished the lake itself in over 2 decades, so I thought it was probably due for a visit. Crowded. That's a good way to describe it. I am not surprised that the highway's namesake body of water was of interest to a lot of folks, but I didn't expect quite this many people on a Thursday afternoon. Noticed that the smell from Lost Lake had followed us, but we couldn't seem to figure out where it was coming from. Then we noticed a dead deer carcass in the water just down from where we set up. The stench was powerful, so we moved on to another spot. Ended up catching a few more small brookies, and rainbows, and even fished through, the water fight that erupted between the swarm of scouts in canoes out on the lake, followed by the screaming contest from the girls camp that was setting up to launch canoes. Luckily about this time the storm clouds had gathered up enough to dump a small amount of wind and rain from the skies, that they all cleared out, and after about 5 minutes it stopped, and the canoes never returned.
After running out of nightcrawlers, we decided to head on home. Delightful, but smelly day up along UT150.
Plans are to go back tomorrow morning.
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