Pulling in at sundown, there he was. We hadn’t seen each other for too long and knowing he’d be leaving for a mission trip to Haiti with his soon to be bride, in a month or 2 it was a little emotional. We also met Mathew, the young man he’d brought with him, which he mentors from church. We found out we’d both waited at Wal-mart for over an hour on opposite sides of the parking lot and completely missed each other, with me circling the lot before they got there and after they left.
I missed 3 strikesin 2 minutes on a #16 Para-Adams then nothing for an hour before it got too dark. We were at the after-bay of a place Wildman would have been comfortable before he became known just for his Mustache. Nobody else had a hit but they were all throwing barbless hardware.
We then found a campsite up by the lake. Dinner was ‘Qed Polish sausage on French bread with Goulden’s mustard, canned corn and Pork’n’Beans, then Chili for those who were still hungry. Good, but it sure did make the tent flaps move!
I washed the jacket out and hung it high in a tree, well away from camp. No tracks were found around it in the morning, even though a campsite at the opposite end of the CG had a late night visit from a Cinnamon colored Black Bear.
-CAUTION: Conventional and the B word fishing ahead.
The next AM I was the last out of the tents, well after 8 and felt wonderful after my best night’s sleep in 2+ weeks. Being in the pines does that to me. Joey was down at the lake, operative word DOWN. The lake was at least 50’ below full pool. The boys were disposing of groceries in odd combinations such as Bacon and marshmallows and…, as boys will. I told them what not to eat, then joined Joey down by the lake with a 3wt and a UL spinning rod. A troller came by and told us he had lots of fish at 40’ on his sonar, with nothing shallower than 30’. Oh well, so much for FFing the lake, which I kind of expected from the heat and water level. Joey had been casting conventional lures and took that as a queue to soak bait. Being a little despondent about the situation, I joined him. We caught 3 stockers over the next 1-1/2 hours, all of which fought just ok for the 1st 10-15’ then turned into wet socks when they hit the warmer water near the surface. With breakfast on a stick, we returned to camp.
The boys had already gotten on swim-shorts and were trying to blow up a leaky air mattress they’d found by the lake. They asked if they could blow-up my Kick-boat and I replied “Who’s going to carry it back up from the water later?” Chirp-chirp the crickets sure got loud as they looked at the lake level, each other, then me. I told them where to find the float-tube I’d borrowed for Jeff and to be careful with it. By the time they had it ready, we had breakfast ready. The boys having already raided the groceries packed away as much as Joey and I did and more. A pound of Bacon, 18 eggs and a tube of biscuits gone and I got 3 slices, 2 eggs over medium, ½ of a stocker and a biscuit. Are we sure the Bears didn’t visit us?
-SAFE to read again
The rest of the day was spent by all of us swimming, diving off rocks, playing in the float-tube and me getting world class sunburn when I fell asleep in the tube with a life jacket on and a hat mostly covering my face. Perma-vest is NOT a good look for me! Fortunately I wasn’t planning on shaving for the trip so my whiskers and a long sleeve shirt somewhat hide most of the burn area. I wanted to go fish the after-bay which has a COLD water discharge and is special regulation water, but the rest of the pansies in camp didn’t want to go back down there after freezing the first night. Instead they teased me about wanting to cook the fish down there by putting my sunburn in the water. Kids can be so cruel!
I couldn’t tell you what we had for dinner other than it had beef stew, ramen and green beans among other things in it. The boys made it and it was edible other than they used up too much oregano and all of the Italian sausage that I was going to use in my pasta later. After that I slept like a log until I moved and the sunburn let me know I shouldn’t have 3 different times.
-FF ahead
In the AM I was the 1st out of the tents and fish were rising down at the lake. As carefully as I could I snuck down and took the temp 66F. There were 2 rises in succession coming towards me about 7’ off the bank. I already had the line ready and without a false cast I dropped it where I thought he’d come up next. The PA I had on was sipped by a 15” Brown not 5 minutes after I made it to the water. This strong fish did 2 cartwheels and a greyhound before giving up.
After I got him in, revived (which took a long time) and released him, I didn’t see another rise. As soon as sunlight started hitting the hills above me I checked the temp again and it was 69F. I wonder if a swirl of warmer current hit the bank or what happened to raise the water temp 3F in less than 30 minutes?Joey had to be back to work that afternoon so we broke camp and said our goodbyes. While getting things packed I spilled juice on the sleeping bags.
Darn it! Instead of leisurely rolling into our next camp at nightfall after fishing and traveling all day, we had to find a Laundromat. I knew there was 1 in Bridgeport so we pushed to make it there before 4, not knowing when it might close. This allowed us to hit a few places but not spend the time I wanted to.1st stop was Donnel overlook. Wow! You can see miles and miles. Lakes, river, waterfalls, granite monoliths, geologic formations, thick and thin forest…
Clarks Fork looked beautiful but I only managed to C&R a 7” wild Rainbow on a Parachute BWO and missed a smaller Brown for ~2 hours of fishing both dries and nymphing. Jeff was happy to swim and play guide, pointing out spots he thought fish might be.
I thought about stopping at a place Craig had suggested, but we were running out of time.
Coming down off the pass was the steepest road I’d ever been on. 26% grade ahead said 1 sign. I dropped all the way down to 1st gear and 4Low and still managed to heat up my breaks to where they slipped a little.
To be continued