Been out of town this past week with my Young Men's group... We headed out to the wild west Wyoming style... After a seven mile back pack trip we were greeted by see picture 1... (since the forum still isn't fixed like before so I can't insert a picture here)
Hiked another half hour to our camp with this view... See Picture 2.
Set up camp and taught a couple boys how to cast and catch a few brookies and little minnows....
Next morning wanted to figure out the secret of the ponds so went out and started casting and after a short while the fish started teaching me the ropes... Ended up catching quite a few macs and a few brookies scattered in the mix... See picture 3
Kept a couple for dinner, fish were nice sized this year. See picture 4
Went out later to try my luck in another spot off a 12 foot cliff and wouldn't ya know it got a good solid tug... In fact it peeled line of my light duty rod and reel like crazy, had me within two wraps of being out of line twice... It was a great fight and eventually I seen this appear out of the depth.... Blew my mind, never expected something like this from a high mountain lake... See picture 5
Sorry to the big mac lovers but we did eat this fish and please don't rant on about this, it's the first big mac I have kept and ate.... I guessed it's length at 35" it was 3 of my foot lengths long... Got a few good brookies See pic 6 and my boys even caught a few good ones see pic 7... Couldn't help but love the scenery of this spot... see pic 8
Caught a little color... pic 9 and even my brother got in on the act of catching nice fish see pic 10.... We did eat a lot of fish on this trip and it was so dang good... Mike sorry I kept the left over Creo spice from the flotilla and put it to work on these fish and wow what a treat... See pic 11 and 13... Finished up with a rain storm and beautiful morning after to hike out, See pic 12, 14 and 15...
Anyway wonderful trip even if the bears did steal some of our fish before dinner one night and they continued to hang around cleaning up after the boys that didn't believe our bear safety warnings about cleaning fish close to camp and leaving gut piles around... The boys became quick believers after the sow stole a 24" fish and cubs kept showing up just outside of camp.. Glad they were only robbers and not plunders as well... Closest encounters I've had with black bears, think I was about 30' away from the sow when I found her with the fish in her mouth, did my best to scare her and she slowly walked away... Welll sorry I couldn't post the pictures in the story, but hope you will take the time to pull up a few... Later... J
Note: Internet problems so I'm loading pics as fast as it will let me. Sorry J
Sorry I couldn't fix it so I took pictures of my computer and got the numbers all mixed up. Guess I'll have to use the phone from now on. Hope these wont be too distorted. J
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Picture 5 or 6....oh that will be worth the wait! Seriously nice fish!
Great report and that bear story is one more people should be aware of while packing out there. Glad the lesson was safe one this time.
Let me know if you want to get a quick tutorial from me on how to use photobucket for inline pictures. I'd be more than glad to assist you through it. PM me or respond in this thread.
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I think you'll like these pictures if my home Internet will start working. Took the pictures with my camera instead of phone so I have to use my computer to down load them and its a struggle. Wish I would have taken more with my phone then I could just drop them in like a picture I took on the hike out. See below.
I may need you to teach me the photo bucket route again since they don't seem to want to fix this site like it used to be. Problem was the bucket method was so cumbersome it didn't seem worth the effort. But I sure enjoy your posts when you get those fotos inline.
I agree with your bear comments, there are for sure more bears around these days and they are so smart, we had one fish in a plastic bag under a rock in ice cold water over night and the bear found and ate it. Please everyone learn from our story and be extra bear safe, once they get a taste they like to come back. After our first experience we cleaned up everything and they came back, but didn't find anything so the next day they didn't return. Hope we all learned to be more bear safe. We are lucky we kept all our food in the trees day and night. It surprised me that the bear raids came during daylight hours I always expected night raids. Thanks for the comments. J
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Glad you had fun and the boys probably did too. I have never been up there but after seeing your pics it is going on the bucket list. That looks like some beautiful country.
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Thanks for posting the pic's. I hiked into those lakes 41 years ago as a boy scout. We caught mac's up to 23 inches.
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The Winds are a great bucket list there are so many beautiful areas I love our trips up there. Wish I was younger and had more time to explore. Later J
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Wish I could get you better pictures to enjoy. Fun area hope this brings back some great memories. Later J
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How were the mosquitos?
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Skeeters were hungry especially at certain times each day. The repellant helped, but long sleeves was better. Later J
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Amazing! Looks like my kind of place no people, big fish, and solitude. I might have to carve out a week to fish that mtn in the near future. I have just always heard you hike 7-10 miles the first day to set up camp. Then you can start hiking into the lakes from there.
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Great report, glad ya'll made it out intack. Bears are not to be trifled with, especially momma and her cubs.
Seen a momma send her cubs up a tree, launched over to our hanging food bags, ripped the bottom open, and it was Pinata city for the gang!
All the little things, like toothpaste, soap, late night smore snacks in the tent. And yeah - daytime, nighttime, anytime is Bear time!
Looks like the fishing was good to ya, and the catching better. Well done.
It was great if you like the place to yourself, we had two guys with float tubes on a lake about a mile from us, we seen them the day we fished that lake and the day we left for home there was a couple and their dog that camped across the lake from us. So for five days only seeing 4 other people briefly, it was pretty nice. Most people that are there are rock climbing so the fishing crew is even less pressured. Fun area and so many cool spots, I love it. Only problem is if you get hurt, helps a long ways away.
We did exactly like you mentioned, set up base camp in a pretty spot with a spring near by, then day hiked to other lakes within several miles of our camp. Part of our group did a long hike with an overnight stay in bivies they seen some cool stuff, but worked hard to do it. Anyway good luck when you do it. Later J
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Hey thanks Yote, it was a good trip and nice to not live up to my handle. Suspect we caught well over 500 fish and probably 200 were over 18" so it was an unusual high mountain trip. I don't expect to have one this good again anytime soon. It might have been because the ice just melted off the lakes a week or two before we arrived, but for some reason the fish were hungry and very aggressive. Anyway fun times and a nice reset of the soul. Thanks for the comment. J
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I'm preparing to move back along the Atlantic ocean so missed this post. I'm surprised you posted this. Feeding bears repetitively is extremely dangerous to future campers and especially the bear. You do know BSA and the Forest Service have both read this by now. Why didn't the children along on the trip have proper education on bears before hand? Why wasn't there adequate and competent adult supervision during the trip? Utah Scouts have the worst reputation in the US already and then you broadcast that they again put other at risk by their actions.[:/]
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Joe don't get your panties in a bundle, the boys were instructed on bear safety and were practicing it for the most part. However, when they were cleaning fish they failed to get the entrails taken care of and they floated to the edge of the lake by our camp. The bears picked up on them and cleaned them up. The fish robbery was unexpected, we were preparing to cook the fish for dinner and while we were getting ready the bear rolled in and stole the fish in full daylight. Could we have done better, yes we could have cooked in a location away from camp but that isn't practical. I suspect you're not a back packer or a youth leader from your comments. We have successfully had youth camps for 23 years and this was the first time bears have come to visit. Will we do things different in the future, yes we won't clean the fish anywhere close to camp, did we create trouble bears, no, these guys had this routine down from past groups. Are you ready to have me removed as an advisor? If so there will be a lot of disappointed boys that won't get an experience of a lifetime. Am I worried of your Forest Service or BSA threats, no I've been working closely with both groups and they understand wilderness situations. Does this give Utah scouts a bad rap, I doubt it, we dealt with the situation, had a great time and left things better than we found them by packing out trash others left behind. Sorry not sucking into your rants. Jeff
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Joe hill. Thank god you are moving back to the east coast! Your scolding is out of line! There are millions just like you back there so go fit in!
I think it sucks that a guy gets ripped on for posting a wonderful story and adventure for us to enjoy. Do you really think that they didn't tell the boys about bear safety? Kids will do what kids will do and there is not much that can be done about it. They did nothing that could incur the wrath of the BSA, forest service or the U.S. Fish and wildlife service, so why even bring it up unless you were just trying to get something started? And by the way, if you die in Utah if it were within our power we wouldn't bury you in Utah, we would flush you down the toilet along with your crappy attitude!
We'll crap, I guess I just played into it , so shame on me. Have fun in Obama country!
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Awesome post Skunked. I would love to make it up there. You have a lucky group of young men.
Joe....lame, just lame.
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Loved your post Jeff. I've been wanting to hike the wind rivers for years, but never seem to find the time. Those fish were off the hook! (Was that a pun?). Some of the best photos I've seen in a long time. It's almost unbelievable the size of that laker. I would not have expected to catch a fish like that in a high mountain lake in a million years!
That Creole seasoning is the bomb. I bought it at smiths and I seem to use it on most all of my catfish that I cook. I bet it's equally great on trout.
You did a mighty fine thing taking those boys up there and they'll remember it forever. Also, ya can't stop a bear from being a bear. They'll find anything that's edible and it's almost impossible to stop them from getting at it. Just share it if they claim it and chalk it up to an exciting experience.
What a lucky dog you are for getting to go up there and see all of that. I'm jealous!
Mike
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Hey thanks for the support, I do love the Winds so many incredible places to see. Not that I want to increase the number of people there, but ya just would like others to be able to experience the majesty of that magnificent area it is so incredible and the fishing is pretty dang good too. Thanks again and hope you can get there someday. Later J
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Hey Mike thanks for the support and I am mighty lucky to be able to do this. I got a family of girls and none are into fishing anymore so I've been so lucky to have church callings that let me do what I love. Also lucky to have boys that want to take on this level of adventure. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up with the boys, but I hope I've still got more trips to take. After losing 20 lbs before this trip I felt ten years younger so hope I can keep that off.
I hope you can get up to the winds with your family, its hard to do but worth the sacrifice. I find I need to start planning six months early to make it happen and then not let anything get in the way. It's tough with farming, but I find it waits if you try to schedule around it.
I was so shocked to see that fish come up out of the depth, I knew it was a good fish from the fight but I didn't expect that big. Wish I had more big fish experience to guess size, but my previous Big Mac was 13 lbs and I know this one beat it by a fair amount. I guessed 18 - 20 lbs but its only a guess. 35" long is pretty close so it was a hog. Thanks again for the well wish. Later J
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