Father's Day in Elk Country

[Vanish]

We loaded up bignose in New Castle and headed up Coffee Pot rd. Once on top, we noticed smoke, and a guy coming the other way told us it was coming from White Owl Lake. Son of a bi.... We were debating what to do, when finally another car coming out stopped and we asked. He said the other guy was panicking, the fire was 30 miles away at Rifle Gap. So we headed up to continue our trip.

It didn't take us too long to get up top, and we were one of maybe 3 campers at the lake.  The lake itself was about 3 vertical feet high due to a beaver dam, making it impossible to fish from much of the shore. After setting up camp we headed out on the lake for an evening of fishing. I don't think it had been 10 minutes when dad got the first hookup.





I knew there were lakers here but I honestly wasn't expecting to catch them trolling. I guess we were early enough that some of them were still hanging shallow after ice out. However, I managed to not catch any lake trout, but did get a decent 17" bow.







The weather gods did not like us. As soon as we launched, about 8:00am on Saturday the wind kicked up. I knew we needed to fish the morning but I didn't expect it to start that early. We dealt with it until about 11:00 when I just couldn't take it anymore. We did some shore fishing and it was very bursty. You'd pick up 3 or 4 fish and then nothing for 20 minutes.



We decided to try another strategy using bait and it worked pretty well. Then we found out there was only about 6 crawlers in my container. Damn.



Did a bit of "slaying"



Sunday was even worse, as far as the wind goes. I was up at 5:30, determined to get some good fishing in before the wind started. We launched at 6:30am and were not out on the lake 10 minutes before it kicked up again. Damnit... We picked up fish here and there, but eventually decided to play around camp. Naturally within 10 minutes the wind completely stopped. I ignored it for 20 minutes or so, but fish were rising everywhere, so I got out the fly rod and put on a black midge pattern. Got out on the lake and caught a whole bunch of fish within 10 minutes, but then the storm started. I figured it would pass, but my Dad was intimidated and we packed up and rolled out.

You know he had a good time by the look on his face... they grow up so fast.



A few photos of elk country:

[pointysticks]

amazing!! you had a great day dad!

[elkmtngear]

Awesome photos...looks like a good time had by all!

[Lefty]

Good looking stuff , Thanks for posting the pics

[ElkNut1]

Wow, what a great time you guys had there, good for you to get away from things & spend it with family & friends. Awesome photos!

ElkNut1

[WapitiTalk1]

Yeah, I guess it's OK if you like that sort of thing . High mountain lakes, fishing for multiple species, camping with family, beautiful scenery. Very, very nice day sir. Thanks for sharing your weekend photos with us. RJ

[bnsafe]

awesome

[Slim jim]

Awesome! Looks you guys had a great time. Going up to the mountains to camp and fish with my family in a week and a half. Can't wait

[easeup]

..and you guys caught some nice ones too!

sounds like a SWEET weekend to me.