Saturday we fished Pine Island in the morning. I wasn't having any luck, so I threw the bumper for Guage for a little while and tried to get a few good pics. That was his reward for packing stuff around all weekend! Andrew and Vince had gone over to Lily Pad while I was fishing Pine Island and had caught a couple, so we moved over there. That is what I love about that area, if you aren't catching fish in one lake, move on to the next lake. We pulled a couple out at Lily Pad, but then Andrew decided he wanted to go swimming.
Andrew had been calling the forest service out there and as of two weeks ago there was 4 feet of snow in the pass and the lakes were froze solid. As of Monday, MOST of the ice was gone, but a couple lake still had a little bit of ice.
Back to Andrew swimming. There was a tree that was out over the water, he climbed it and jumped in and was out as quick as he went in! Merrill, then put on his shorts and he didn't go as high as Andrew did, but he jumped in too. Merrill has a little more insulation than Andrew does, so he played in the water for a few minutes.
We then moved back over to Pine Island, on the other side from where I was earlier. I caught one, but it was my biggest so far. Andrew was out in his raft that he packed in and was catching quite a few. After we fished there a while we moved down to Palisade. I pulled a couple out there. Up until then all I had caught were Brooke Trout. Palisade treated me to my first Cutthroat Trout of the trip. It was clear enough that I would see the fish, throw in my lure, and watch the fish take the lure. We then went back and had dinner and then hit Fish Hatchery again.
The first time we hit Fish Hatchery Evan lost his neon green lure. Because it was neon green you could see it from the shore, but Evan didn't want to get wet to get it. I was intent on stipping down to my underwear and getting that neon green lure. When we got there more people were there than I had anticipated, so Vince ended up getting it from the boat and gave it to me to use. I ended up losing it the next day at Palisade. The only lure I lost on the trip.
Sunday (July 4th) we woke up to dark clouds, and just as we were finishing breakfast, it started to snow. We (I) procrastinated going out fishing in the snow, but it finally let up so we headed out. We went back to Palisade and caught a bunch more fish. While we were at Palisade it really opened up and snowed/hailed on us. We took shelter under a big tree that had fallen over, and after it let up we headed back to Pine Island.
When we had left in the morning I had only packed a lunch and had intended to be back to camp for dinner. We ended up clear around the back of Pine Island about dinner time, so we cooked up a couple of Brooke Trout right there as soon as we caught them. That hit the spot! There's not too much better in life than sitting on the lake shore eating a Brooke Trout that you caught 20 minutes earlier.
After we ate we headed back to Lily Pad where I caught one more for dinner back at camp. Andrew had stayed and fished Pine Island a little longer and caught by far the biggest fish of the trip. That fish fed all of us for dinner!
Monday morning we packed up and headed out. I fished Betsy for just a few minutes on the way out, but didn't get anything there.
It was one of the funnest trips I have been on. The last time I was there I was Evan's age, and Matt was my age. Time flies!
