Like a lot of people, I'm taking Thanksgiving week off
Sunday I started hiking before 8am, and headed up and down the rolling hills and canyons.
I managed to reach the lake around noonish, and then headed up the fire road an additional mile or so to where I usually camp, about 12 miles for the day. I started setting up camp, filtering water, and getting the packraft inflated, a 2017 Alpacka Scout.
The rod is a Ross Flystik 6wt whose tip snapped a while ago, replaced with the tip section from an Aventik 7'8" glass 4wt which just happens to fit perfectly, coupled with a Cabelas WLX II 5/6 reel (made by Lamson) and a Scientific Angler's Frequency WF6F (I think anyway, it's the textured version with a GPX-like taper). Just your basic budget warmwater fly fishing setup ...
I managed to get out on the water around 2:30pm or so. With the shorter days that meant only about two hours of fishing, but the bass were pretty enthused.
I used a 5ips Rio Versileader and various medium-sized streamers (#6-8 hooks). The fish in this lake are plentiful, if not large, and when they want to play, the fishing can be gangbusters. I completely lost count, but according to my camera's memory card I caught about 16 before hanging it up for the evening.
During the day it had been fairly pleasant 60's in the sun, but once it went behind the ridge things cooled quickly. Time for the down jacket and down sleeping bag. Overnight there were spots with frost out in the open (I camped under a tree).
Next morning was chilly and when the sun came over the ridge I was grateful. I was out on the water again at 9am or so.
I found the balanced leech lent itself well to "rod tip jigging" action. But I also tossed a slumpbuster and a Whitlock's Near 'Nuff Craw, and probably a few other things, just for variety.
I usually like to stop and relax on shore for an hour at lunchtime, but I was soon back at it.
I always enjoy watching the clouds this time of year.
Around 3:30pm I decided to stop, so that I could get the raft packed up for an early-ish departure the next morning, and took a bit of a nap before dinner. I recently discovered this particular camera's HDR mode, and experimented with it as the sun went behind the ridge.
According to the memory card, total fish count for the second day was about three dozen. Wow, these guys have been busy ...
Next morning was chilly, as expected, though perhaps moderated a bit by a few high passing clouds. I started hiking again around 8:30am, and made my way back, up and down.
The trip back is actually more elevation than the trip out, so by the time I got back to the car at 1:30pm I was pretty beat. See you in the springtime my largemouth friends