10-28-2008, 03:43 AM
Hi All-
As promised, I am reporting on our hike up into Long Lake in the Uinta's. My son and I got to the trailhead at about 8:30am. No ice on Crystal Lake, except for some skim near the North end. No fish rising, so we decided to go on up. It was a chilly 26 degrees when we set out on the trail. Only ran into one other party heading up.
We spooked a couple of Elk right near the top of the ridge where the Mt. Watson elevation sign is. That was cool. We got to Long Lake in about a half hour or so. The lake was free of ice and we only saw a few skiffs of snow in shady places.
We started by tossing Jake's brass lures and immediately nailed several nice female Brookies in spawning colors and fat with eggs. They seemed to be cruising just offshore and down about 6-10 feet. They struck often and hard and we released all of them. After it slowed a bit as the sun rose higher, I switched up to a Z-ray with worm bit trailer and Brad changed to a yellow/red spot Panther Martin. The fish loved both. We could see several along the East cliffs circling around the rock piles. Probably spawning redds.
It really slowed by 1:00pm or so, so we had lunch and explored around. The wind blew most of the day, but it was still 60 degrees or so. Very nice for late October. We fished Crystal on the way down and caught one smaller Brookie. Great way to end the backcountry season.
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As promised, I am reporting on our hike up into Long Lake in the Uinta's. My son and I got to the trailhead at about 8:30am. No ice on Crystal Lake, except for some skim near the North end. No fish rising, so we decided to go on up. It was a chilly 26 degrees when we set out on the trail. Only ran into one other party heading up.
We spooked a couple of Elk right near the top of the ridge where the Mt. Watson elevation sign is. That was cool. We got to Long Lake in about a half hour or so. The lake was free of ice and we only saw a few skiffs of snow in shady places.
We started by tossing Jake's brass lures and immediately nailed several nice female Brookies in spawning colors and fat with eggs. They seemed to be cruising just offshore and down about 6-10 feet. They struck often and hard and we released all of them. After it slowed a bit as the sun rose higher, I switched up to a Z-ray with worm bit trailer and Brad changed to a yellow/red spot Panther Martin. The fish loved both. We could see several along the East cliffs circling around the rock piles. Probably spawning redds.
It really slowed by 1:00pm or so, so we had lunch and explored around. The wind blew most of the day, but it was still 60 degrees or so. Very nice for late October. We fished Crystal on the way down and caught one smaller Brookie. Great way to end the backcountry season.
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