Backcountry Lakes: Lake X: Invite One Brother And He Will Be On Time, Invite Two Brothers Expect Delays

This Hast To Be A Painting

What a great weekend! After this trip I know my life has been truly blessed. I always love the opportunity to show off my favorite place and one of my favorite lakes to other people. On the drive up I asked Shayne if he has ever been to a mountain lake around the Mackay area, he said he hasn't so it was a great place to start off with. As we hiked up the trail and just started into the meadow just below the pass we ran into guy that was just coming off of the pass. He saw how loaded we were and asked if we were going up to the lake, after we had answered he said that it was a "little iced over but we could find our holes" whatever that meant. After hearing that we didn't hurry too much to get to the lake that might be frozen. Just before we reached the top I said that we where either a week early or we hit it just right, turns out I was right either way.

Golden Trout

Panning for Gold

Its always about hitting the lake just right but when you go up too early its just a huge let down. When we topped out and looked over to glance at the frozen lake, talk about a punch to the gut. I just sat down joining the other two as we talked about what we were going to do. After a good break, Justin and I left the sleeping Shayne to rest while we went and walked around the lake. Turns out the guy was right, there was a few spots open you just had to work at it. And by work at I mean throw the waders on that I brought and get out there and wrangle you some ice blocks. By the time I did that, I was so cold that I was done getting back into the water. I tried talking Shayne into going swimming but no luck there, I even told him that I was trained in hypothermia wrapping (Wilderness First Aid).

Men At Work

About halfway through the day with no luck and only seeing one or two fish here and there I got tried and sat myself on a rock to keep my fly in the water. After about 20 minutes or so later and getting turned down by a couple of goldens, I finally hooked into one that made me scream like a little schoolgirl. I set the hook and the fight was on, I reached for my net that had a few holes in it but that didn't stop me from landing the biggest golden to date. After taking a few pics and making a few references to Ace Ventura, "its going to be some kind of a record", I got the guys to come over and I started putting them to work. I got them set up with same fly and the same spot but still I was the only one that hooked into another golden.

I finished the night catching a few more from other spots and then we called it a night where we spent the rest of the night spending it around the campfire reminiscing over past trips and stories. After a cold cold night where the wind would not stop blowing, so cold that the lake refroze to the point where we had to poke holes through to be able to fish. That morning I headed back to the same spot where I caught all the other fish. When I got there it was only a few seconds until I started seeing fish, it was going to be another good day of fishing. After punching a hole in the ice I was set up, I missed a few fish but nothing as big as the next fish that I was about to catch. I could see a school of fish coming straight for my fly. the biggest one was in the middle with two bodyguards, one each side. I don't know how I lucked out and was able to trick the biggest one to eat but sometimes the fish gods just smile on you a little bit more than others. Once I saw him shallow the fly it was game on. Since I punched a hole through the ice with a rock it was a lot more challenging than bring him towards me to the net. The hardest part was to get him up and out of the hole but once I calmed myself and got his head through the whole I let him do the rest of the work and next thing you know he's on the ice, just chilling before his photo shoot.

Justin, Heaven On Earth

After Justin and I caught a few more Goldens we called it a day and headed on home. Let me tell you its not easy leaving a place like this one. I was tempted to climb to the pass and phone into our boss to tell him that we weren't going to make it into work in the morning but the funny thing is he probably would have encouraged us into staying longer.

"The Lord has blessed us all today... It's just that he has been particularly good to me".--Norman Maclean