Even though Summer is over and the days are quickly getting shorter, I managed to squeeze in a long overdue backpack trip with an old friend. He's one of those skinny runner guys, so I'm really glad I focused the last couple of years on improving my fitness and reducing my weight - it gave me a fighting chance of keeping up with him. This was mostly a hiking/exploration trip, but of course I brought a fly rod - my Hardy Sirrus Glass 7.5ft 4/5wt. We went to an area with alpine lakes and a stream I have wanted to explore for a while.
The trip ended up a bit Odonata-like - we covered many miles and saw more wilderness high country than I typically see on my usual 1/2-day jaunts to Sierra creeks. The first day was "just" 7.5 miles up, up a couple thousand vertical feet, then back to a nice sized lake. We found a great spot tucked behind one section of the lake for a 2-night base camp. After we dropped our packs, we went fishing. Turns out the lake had a large and healthy population of brook trout. Grasshoppers were out and about, so I rigged up with a Chubby Chernobyl and was rewarded with several healthy brookies hitting it hard. It's fun to watch a fish materialize out of the depths and nail your fly. My hiking mate brought along a lightweight spin rod and a few Panther Martin lures and actually did better than I did. Fun stuff.
The next day we went on a walkabout and explored a headwaters creek I wanted to check out. This creek was small, but not really any smaller than others I have had fun fishing. I saw no evidence at all of any fish in it. Later on the hike we passed another, smaller, creek that had numerous visible trout ranging from fry up to about 6" or so. This was a little bit of a mystery, but also a question answered. 12 miles later, we finished the day back at our "home" lake with one more fishing session. This time we kept a few for dinner. I haven't kept fish in a long time - and boy are brook trout tasty. I was a little surprised to have almost no success catching fish in the evenings. In most alpine lakes, fish rising in the evening will hit almost anything that looks like a bug, especially toward the end of the season. These fish were rising steadily to feed on something subsurface but would not touch anything I put out for them.
After a nice evening watching the stars and a night of well-earned sleep, we had a leisurely breakfast and headed back out to the car and civilization. Good times for sure. Our tally was nearly 30 miles in just two and a half days; good (daytime) fishing; and a beautiful locale; and a couple of nice sunrises with coffee. What a nice way to end the summer (or start the fall, really). Pics follow.
Looking back down our hike up from the top of the pass.
Beautiful lakes just over the pass.
Our basecamp lake.
Our basecamp.
Sierra backcountry. We hiked down to the stream and back up again in a big loop.
My rig for the trip.
Healthy brookie!
A keeper.
Dinner.
Sunrise coffee.