07-20-2015, 01:20 AM
Every summer I take a trip with my grandpa and uncle out to one of two lakes in the middle of nowhere. This time, we were heading out to our less traveled lake, which none of us had been to in about 10 years.
We were told that the lake had been poisoned 4 years ago, due to a chub problem, and restocked with tiger trout. (Hence me asking last week for tiger tips). The lake had previously been full of large beautiful cutthroat trout, with 5lb+ cutts being caught regularly. We were
to hear about the poisoning, but were excited to catch some tigers.
We left Salt Lake Friday morning around 9 a.m. and headed east. The total drive time is close to 6 hours, with 2+ hours being on dirt road.
After a couple short stops, we arrived to our destination about 4 p.m. We had camp set up in no time and were ready to hit the evening bite.
I set out in my float tube rigged with a gulp minnow on one of TD's custom jig heads on one rod, and a red sided shiner on the other. (I can't believe the craftsmanship on these jig heads. Pat does amazingly quality work.) Anyways as soon as I had rods in the water it was fish after fish.
The first fish, to my surprise, was a cutt. I paddled around in the tube until dark with a fish on almost every cast. My uncle and grandpa were tearing it up from shore as well.
It was great because we were expecting only tigers, but caught all of tigers, rainbows, and cutts. My uncle and grandpa each caught a brook trout as well.
With the lake being restocked 4 years ago, we were expecting to catch some larger fish, but the biggest ones were only pushing 16 inches. The lake is surprisingly deep for how small it is. (About 3/4 a mile long, and a couple hundred yards across at the widest point.) So there may be some trophies in there, but we didn't land any this trip.
We fished Friday night and Saturday morning and afternoon, but about 3 p.m. some heavy rain started coming down, and wasn't letting up. With us being miles and miles from any civilization on dirt road, we decided to pack up a day early in hopes of not getting stuck in there. We made it out just fine in a Jeep Rubicon, but in most any other vehicle, we wouldn't have made it out of there for a few days. It was pretty dicey in places, and we got turned sideways a few times, but we made it home safely about 3 a.m.
It was wonderful being out there miles away from another soul, with some actual fresh mountain air. We saw plenty of deer. A herd of 100+ very large and healthy elk. Dozens of wild horses. One lone buffalo. A golden eagle. A large owl. Dozens of rabbits. Among other various creatures. I couldn't find my camera before we set out, so I had to make due with my phone camera. I wasn't able to catch anywhere near as much as I would've liked to, but I hope you enjoy the pictures I did get.
Thanks for reading.
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We were told that the lake had been poisoned 4 years ago, due to a chub problem, and restocked with tiger trout. (Hence me asking last week for tiger tips). The lake had previously been full of large beautiful cutthroat trout, with 5lb+ cutts being caught regularly. We were
to hear about the poisoning, but were excited to catch some tigers. We left Salt Lake Friday morning around 9 a.m. and headed east. The total drive time is close to 6 hours, with 2+ hours being on dirt road.
After a couple short stops, we arrived to our destination about 4 p.m. We had camp set up in no time and were ready to hit the evening bite.
I set out in my float tube rigged with a gulp minnow on one of TD's custom jig heads on one rod, and a red sided shiner on the other. (I can't believe the craftsmanship on these jig heads. Pat does amazingly quality work.) Anyways as soon as I had rods in the water it was fish after fish.
The first fish, to my surprise, was a cutt. I paddled around in the tube until dark with a fish on almost every cast. My uncle and grandpa were tearing it up from shore as well.
It was great because we were expecting only tigers, but caught all of tigers, rainbows, and cutts. My uncle and grandpa each caught a brook trout as well.
With the lake being restocked 4 years ago, we were expecting to catch some larger fish, but the biggest ones were only pushing 16 inches. The lake is surprisingly deep for how small it is. (About 3/4 a mile long, and a couple hundred yards across at the widest point.) So there may be some trophies in there, but we didn't land any this trip.
We fished Friday night and Saturday morning and afternoon, but about 3 p.m. some heavy rain started coming down, and wasn't letting up. With us being miles and miles from any civilization on dirt road, we decided to pack up a day early in hopes of not getting stuck in there. We made it out just fine in a Jeep Rubicon, but in most any other vehicle, we wouldn't have made it out of there for a few days. It was pretty dicey in places, and we got turned sideways a few times, but we made it home safely about 3 a.m.
It was wonderful being out there miles away from another soul, with some actual fresh mountain air. We saw plenty of deer. A herd of 100+ very large and healthy elk. Dozens of wild horses. One lone buffalo. A golden eagle. A large owl. Dozens of rabbits. Among other various creatures. I couldn't find my camera before we set out, so I had to make due with my phone camera. I wasn't able to catch anywhere near as much as I would've liked to, but I hope you enjoy the pictures I did get.
Thanks for reading.
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