08-17-2012, 08:02 PM
After a really poor trip to Boulder Mountain this past May, I really needed to redeem myself. It was my first time down. My buddy Casey told me he and his dad were headed down and I jumped at the chance to make up for my last trip that yielded only a couple fish. Another buddy Jacksonman was going to join us as well.
The destination was going to be boulder top. When we arrived and set up camp, it wasn't long until a storm rolled in and started hailing on us.
After setting up camp, we decided to hit a nearby lake. It was very shallow. We were on float tubes. After locating the deeper end of the lake it was fish on. I caught about 4-5 13 inch brook trout. Most were missing a fin or two.
A large herd of sheep came down to the lake briefly. There was a sheep herder on a horse with a team of dogs. He'd blow his whistle and the dogs would push the sheep in a certain direction. It was pretty interesting to watch.
In the evening we decided to take the ATVs and head to the rim of boulder top and try a few lakes. One of them produced nicely but they other didn't have much going on at it.
The following morning we rode to a trailhead and the plan was to fish a string of five or six lakes that were all fairly close to each other. The first lake had seen a lot of pressure as there were several people there. There appeared to be some nice fish in the lake, but they weren't too interested in anything we had to offer so we moved on.
The lake looked promising.
I quickly pulled out 5 decent brookies. Jacksonman on the other hand couldn't catch a fish here to save his life. He was across the lake on an outcropping of rocks. He said he was seeing fish and getting a few takes, but couldn't hook anything.
We moved on and stopped at a few very shallow lakes that showed no signs of life. We wondered if maybe they had winter killed and moved on to the next lake. This had some decent cutthroat trout that were biting on Gulp minnows and rapalas. We were wishing that we had packed in our float tubes as there was some nice deeper water just out of reach of our casts. We caught about 10 cutts between the two of us at this lake before the rain started dumping on us and we headed back down the trail.
The rain wasn't letting up this time. It poured for several hours. We decided we had seen just about enough of boulder top and decided to relocate to another spot on the mountain where Jacksonman had done well in the past. On the way the weather offered us a view of a nice double rainbow.
We hiked in to a lake that held tiger trout and right away I hooked into a really nice fish. It showed us some nice aerial moves and I was certain it was a brute. Our change of scenery was paying immediate dividends. Once I brought it in and put a tape on it, it had somehow shrunk down to only 19 inches. I could have sworn it was going to be 21+. It's funny how that happens sometimes.
We hiked back to our camp in the dark and were pretty beat. The plan was to haul our tubes 4 miles to the spot Jacksonman had been to in the past. It was sounding less and less appealing. Morning rolled around and we both woke up feeling like crap. We decided to go ahead with the plan anyways and soon enough we arrived at our destination.
We immediately started getting into some really nice brookies. Jacksonman kicked my butt at this lake and out fished me nearly 3-1. everything was 15-17 inches with a couple pushing 19. They had great colors and were nice and chunky.
Jacksonman's young husky Tikan got pretty bored while we were out on our tubes but did great on his first camping trip.
All in all it was a great trip. I'd love to visit Boulder again soon.
Dumb question here....I really need to get these photos into the report but have never figured out how to get them inline on this site. Any help?
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The destination was going to be boulder top. When we arrived and set up camp, it wasn't long until a storm rolled in and started hailing on us.
After setting up camp, we decided to hit a nearby lake. It was very shallow. We were on float tubes. After locating the deeper end of the lake it was fish on. I caught about 4-5 13 inch brook trout. Most were missing a fin or two.
A large herd of sheep came down to the lake briefly. There was a sheep herder on a horse with a team of dogs. He'd blow his whistle and the dogs would push the sheep in a certain direction. It was pretty interesting to watch.
In the evening we decided to take the ATVs and head to the rim of boulder top and try a few lakes. One of them produced nicely but they other didn't have much going on at it.
The following morning we rode to a trailhead and the plan was to fish a string of five or six lakes that were all fairly close to each other. The first lake had seen a lot of pressure as there were several people there. There appeared to be some nice fish in the lake, but they weren't too interested in anything we had to offer so we moved on.
The lake looked promising.
I quickly pulled out 5 decent brookies. Jacksonman on the other hand couldn't catch a fish here to save his life. He was across the lake on an outcropping of rocks. He said he was seeing fish and getting a few takes, but couldn't hook anything.
We moved on and stopped at a few very shallow lakes that showed no signs of life. We wondered if maybe they had winter killed and moved on to the next lake. This had some decent cutthroat trout that were biting on Gulp minnows and rapalas. We were wishing that we had packed in our float tubes as there was some nice deeper water just out of reach of our casts. We caught about 10 cutts between the two of us at this lake before the rain started dumping on us and we headed back down the trail.
The rain wasn't letting up this time. It poured for several hours. We decided we had seen just about enough of boulder top and decided to relocate to another spot on the mountain where Jacksonman had done well in the past. On the way the weather offered us a view of a nice double rainbow.
We hiked in to a lake that held tiger trout and right away I hooked into a really nice fish. It showed us some nice aerial moves and I was certain it was a brute. Our change of scenery was paying immediate dividends. Once I brought it in and put a tape on it, it had somehow shrunk down to only 19 inches. I could have sworn it was going to be 21+. It's funny how that happens sometimes.
We hiked back to our camp in the dark and were pretty beat. The plan was to haul our tubes 4 miles to the spot Jacksonman had been to in the past. It was sounding less and less appealing. Morning rolled around and we both woke up feeling like crap. We decided to go ahead with the plan anyways and soon enough we arrived at our destination.
We immediately started getting into some really nice brookies. Jacksonman kicked my butt at this lake and out fished me nearly 3-1. everything was 15-17 inches with a couple pushing 19. They had great colors and were nice and chunky.
Jacksonman's young husky Tikan got pretty bored while we were out on our tubes but did great on his first camping trip.
All in all it was a great trip. I'd love to visit Boulder again soon.
Dumb question here....I really need to get these photos into the report but have never figured out how to get them inline on this site. Any help?
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