Friday, Donna and I enjoyed a great day fishing the Yakima from State to Bristol -- several fish brought in on YakCaddis. Saturday, we worked at home and suffered the dreary fog. Today, we headed back into the sun, but chose to go high instead of going east. We headed up into the Clearwater Wilderness, hiking up to Summit Lake. There's a bit of snow lingering in the lake basin from that end-of-September storm, but the lake was clear and the autumn colors were outstanding. We quickly spotted trout moving along the shore of the crystal-clear lake, so we rigged up and started casting, frequently throwing dry flies while standing on banks of snow. Sophie (our Yellow Lab) was gracious in foregoing a swim while we started hooking and releasing brookies. After a 3 hours Donna and I each had at least 15 fish to hand and probably that many missed on set or LDRed. Sophie closely watched each release to make sure we did it right. (see photo below). All in all, a great day in the sun, with a moderate hike, incredibly views and active fishing! NOTE: The 3rd photo below looks like a mis-handled fish, but that brookie isn't laying on exposed rocks -- the lake is so clear, it looks that way, but it is actually about 12 inches below the surface of the lake.
I went to an alpine lake this past week. Its so nice up in the hills during the seasonal changes. I love the mountain lakes and surroundings. The fishing is great and the weather is cooperating.
Beautiful colors on those brook trout. They mirror the fall colors all around the lake. Or vise versa? I like the use of the orange vest for Sophie while in the autumn woods during hunting season. I think I'll follow suit with my chocolate lab.
Wonderful pictures. Thanks so much for sharing. That fourth picture looks like "What do we do now, boss?" That has to be a day to remember.
A vest like that is good for any dog, but for yellow labs it is essential since far too many yellows have been mistaken for cougars (??!!) by careless hunters over the years. Even when I was bird hunting in the past, I would have my labs wear orange -- it's unfortunate that not all hunters clear their shooting field before firing and far too many shot at 'assumed targets' rather than 100-percent confirmed targets.
Well done, Dan and great pics! Sheesh, I think the last time I was at Summit Lake was about 30 years ago!
Well, the fish have just gotten more numerous and bigger -- I saw one BIG brookie (had to be 20 inches) but he was staying low and I didn't feel like trying to huck a big woolly bugger at him.
