Ten Lakes In Ten Days - Uintas/Cache Natn'l Forest Report Aug 2004

[neveronsunday]

[red][size 3]Spent most of August backpacking and fishing the Uintas/Cache National Forest area. [/size][/red]
[red][size 3]Started off with a small group of scouts and stayed a night at the trailhead at Washington Lake. Caught several little Tiger trout and a half starved looking Cutthroat the first evening. Forgot the camera so no pics of the little tigers.[/size][/red]
[red][size 3]The water was so low and traffic so high at Trial lake we didn't even bother there. [/size][/red][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Hiked to Wall lake the next morning and fished for an hour. The only way we knew there was fish in it was we found one, some one had caught and cleaned and then just left it in the lake. No bites on anything - nothing. [/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Climbed over the Notch and found a little last season snow to play in. Stopped at Ibantic and picked up several Brooke trout. They were not very agressive most of the time so a sloooooow flat fish did fairly well. [/size][/#ff0000]

[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Camped two nights at Meadow lake and did OK. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]I fished the whole lake around the second day and only picked up 5 Cutts that whole loop. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3]A fly on a bubble was fair. They wouldn't touch anything with a white wing for sure, picked up one on a mosquito and another on a wooly worm. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3]Spinners seemed to be their preferance. The guy who did the best put a small spinner behind his water bobber instead of a fly and put it way out there. In the evenings the fish would come in close and feed right along the banks. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Here's one fresh for the frying pan. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Here's one on our redneck frying pan. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]One of the scouts had trouble with his reel. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3]This is what eventually worked. We hiked back to Ibantic and spent another night there. Nothing out of that lake but Brooke trout. I caught them on flatfish, spinners, rapala's, and a fly behind a bubble at dusk. [/size][/#ff0000]
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[#ff0000][size 3]There were 9 mountain goats living along the base of the cliffs above the lake and slept under the stars and saw some killer meterorites that night for a little more fun. [/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]We stopped and fished Wall lake for another hour on the way out with nadda again, but did see one or two rise way out in the middle. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]We took the scouts home and packed up the mountain bikes and took one of my boys up to Tony Grove and biked over to White Pine lake. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Tony Grove is all but dried up and didn't even wet a line there. [/size][/#ff0000]
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[#ff0000][size 3]Here is the dam area. No construction in site yet. Fished White Pine for an hour the next morning without a bite even though there was a fair amount of surface activity. I have never got those little Brookies in there to give up easily. [/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]We biked back out and stuffed the backpack again for a trip up to Round, Sand and Fish Lake. By this time we are in the middle of the rain and cold we had last week so everyone ditched on me so I went up by myself for three days. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Here is a picture of the trail on the way up. Yikes! [/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]The weather was so nasty I went straight to Fish Lake and set up the tent and stayed in it until late the next morning when the skiff of snow melted. I then got rained, hailed, thundered, lighteninged, sleeted and snowed on twice more the next day. I picked up two Cutts, six Brooke trout and around thirty Grayling however. My hands had borderline frostbite as I couldn't keep my gloves on long enough between releasing fish. Daredevils and bobber/fly seemed to do the best. I don't know that the type of fly mattered. I started with a mosquito pattern and by the time I was done it was a straightened out hook with one ot two threads hanging from the whip finish. Sorry no pics. It was so dark and cold that my camera wouldn't charge the flash and take pictures with the tired batteries I now had. [/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]It was fun, but a and sobering time also as you could hear the drone every day of the search aircraft going back and forth the next drainage over. I was having trouble at times staying warm with 5-6 layers instead of the wet tennis shoes that young man probably had to work with. God bless him and his family. A huge nasty storm blew through around six that night so it was back to hide in the tent, but by 8 it was over and clear(er) skies. It was clear and windy the last day. I hiked to Sand lake and caught a lot of Grayliing but they seemed smaller and a little more stressed when I released them so I moved on. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]I fished Round Lake on the way out and picked up a nice Cutt or two. I had as many hits on my water bobber there as I did on my fly. [/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]On the way home I stopped at Smith-Moorehouse and it was so windy there it was whitecaps. There were a couple gentlemen on the ramp fishing from the cab of their truck with their boat still in the back, using power bait that said they caught a few with. I still had the fly and bobber combo on my pole so out of laziness I threw it out for an hour with only a litte 4-5 inch guy trying to catch it in the waves next to the shore. [/size][/#ff0000]
[#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3]Can't beat the scenery in them Uinta's. [/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][#ff0000][size 3][/size][/#ff0000][signature]
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[wiperhunter2]

Great report and awesome pictures. You didn't catch any grayling at Round lake did you? I bet it sure was nice to set away from all the crowds. WH2
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[southernman]

thanks for the descriptive report and pictures ! Sorry you hit so much weather, but those are the trips you remember!

sm
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[icefool]

Thanks for the report and great pictures.
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[Theekillerbee]

Thanks for the great report. That sure would have been an interesting trip. I sure love fishing the uintas, it has some of the best scenery around, and usually you can find a lake or two that is loaded with fish.
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[neveronsunday]

[red][size 3]I only caught Cutts at Round Lake. I had heard that there were Grayling in there but I didn't pick any up. [/size][/red]
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