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WARNING: Specific fishing locations will be disclosed - stop now if you don't like to see "secret locations" online.
Headed up West Fork Foss trail Friday for an overnight trip of backpacking and high lakes fishing with my wife Donna and yellow lab Sophie. This is a incredibly busy trail on weekends, and even mid-week it gets heavy use. By no means is this a secret trail!
Passing Trout Lake at 2 miles, we saw several fish slurping bugs off the surface out in the middle of the lake. We kept going. Copper Lake -- about 2,000 vertical feet higher, sported trout leaping out of the water after bugs. Several groups camped around Copper, including a loud, raucous group that appeared to be two dads and 4 or 5 youngsters (maybe 11 to 15 years old). They were having fun alternative swimming and plunking for trout, though they reported the were only finding 5-7inch trout on their lines.
We kept climbing, seeing several gear chuckers along the east shore of Copper Lake. Those we spoke with reported only a few small trout during the stays (some had been at it for 3+ days). At Little Heart, we met a couple heading down from Big Heart Lake. They reported all campsites at the upper lake were full and one group of college-age boys were very loud long into the night --and they were staying through the weekend (or until the multiple bottles of whiskey were empty).
Since no one was at Little Heart, we set up camp on the large, open site furtherest out along the west shore. Slow fish action through the late afternoon, but after dinner, we saw some feeding going on, so Donna headed out with our rod (were were sharing one rod to save trail weight -- a Sage Flight 4 wt). 10 minutes later, she was back in camp telling me it was my turn (we agreed we'd trade off every two fish). She said as soon as her fly touched water on her second cast, she had a 10+ inch rainbow hammer it -- came all the way out of the water like a breaching whale. Next cast, same thing but this time she had a fat-bodied 14 incher.
I quickly landed my own 11" and 12" fish. Donna that had a hard-fighting 15 incher and another 12". On and on it went. The last 90 minutes of daylight yield about a dozen of rainbows -- all over 10". Of course, my camera was back in camp.
Throughout the action, Sophie sat on the shore and whined -- she seemed to think all the rising trout were things to be retrieved. When I did let her swim out to the rings (well away from where Donna was catching yet another fish) , she would circle around center of the ring and dunk her head under to look for the lost bird/stick/ball -- she didn't know what she was supposed to retrieve, but was sure something was there.
Had a couple 10 inchers the next morning, but action was slow. We headed down to Copper and Donna brought in a couple nice 10-inch brook trout (did get pics of those -- see attached).
We talked to several anglers at Copper - it appeared at least two-thirds of all the campers had angling gear. All reported just a few fish and none in double digit lengths. But all were using spinning gear. We had the only fly rod, it seemed, and all our fish were taken on the surface ( on two flies -- a #16 Tent-wing Black Caddis and a #14 Royal Wulff). Every one else seemed to be chucking spinners or small jigs. Saturday as we hiked out, we counted 27 more people backpacking in - in about 8 groups - and 20 of those individuals had spinning rods on their packs. We saw several day hikers who also had spinning rigs with them. Not one fly rod, though.
So there you have it: a fishing "secret" for one of the hardest-hit high-lakes fisheries in the state. The gear chuckers swarm these lakes, and they find lots of little dinkers. But for sizeable fish, you need to skate small flies on the surface during the evening hatch. (note that the shorelines aren't conducive to traditional casting -- you'll have to do a lot of side-arm casting, backcasting parallel to the shoreline, and roll casting). But these lakes are deep and drop off steeply not to far from shore. There is a lot of downed trees and limbs lining the bottoms just off shore -- in 3 to 15 feet of water -- so lots of holding areas for the fish. All in all, great water for a sustained high lakes fishery.
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Headed up West Fork Foss trail Friday for an overnight trip of backpacking and high lakes fishing with my wife Donna and yellow lab Sophie. This is a incredibly busy trail on weekends, and even mid-week it gets heavy use. By no means is this a secret trail!
Passing Trout Lake at 2 miles, we saw several fish slurping bugs off the surface out in the middle of the lake. We kept going. Copper Lake -- about 2,000 vertical feet higher, sported trout leaping out of the water after bugs. Several groups camped around Copper, including a loud, raucous group that appeared to be two dads and 4 or 5 youngsters (maybe 11 to 15 years old). They were having fun alternative swimming and plunking for trout, though they reported the were only finding 5-7inch trout on their lines.
We kept climbing, seeing several gear chuckers along the east shore of Copper Lake. Those we spoke with reported only a few small trout during the stays (some had been at it for 3+ days). At Little Heart, we met a couple heading down from Big Heart Lake. They reported all campsites at the upper lake were full and one group of college-age boys were very loud long into the night --and they were staying through the weekend (or until the multiple bottles of whiskey were empty).
Since no one was at Little Heart, we set up camp on the large, open site furtherest out along the west shore. Slow fish action through the late afternoon, but after dinner, we saw some feeding going on, so Donna headed out with our rod (were were sharing one rod to save trail weight -- a Sage Flight 4 wt). 10 minutes later, she was back in camp telling me it was my turn (we agreed we'd trade off every two fish). She said as soon as her fly touched water on her second cast, she had a 10+ inch rainbow hammer it -- came all the way out of the water like a breaching whale. Next cast, same thing but this time she had a fat-bodied 14 incher.
I quickly landed my own 11" and 12" fish. Donna that had a hard-fighting 15 incher and another 12". On and on it went. The last 90 minutes of daylight yield about a dozen of rainbows -- all over 10". Of course, my camera was back in camp.
Throughout the action, Sophie sat on the shore and whined -- she seemed to think all the rising trout were things to be retrieved. When I did let her swim out to the rings (well away from where Donna was catching yet another fish) , she would circle around center of the ring and dunk her head under to look for the lost bird/stick/ball -- she didn't know what she was supposed to retrieve, but was sure something was there.
Had a couple 10 inchers the next morning, but action was slow. We headed down to Copper and Donna brought in a couple nice 10-inch brook trout (did get pics of those -- see attached).
We talked to several anglers at Copper - it appeared at least two-thirds of all the campers had angling gear. All reported just a few fish and none in double digit lengths. But all were using spinning gear. We had the only fly rod, it seemed, and all our fish were taken on the surface ( on two flies -- a #16 Tent-wing Black Caddis and a #14 Royal Wulff). Every one else seemed to be chucking spinners or small jigs. Saturday as we hiked out, we counted 27 more people backpacking in - in about 8 groups - and 20 of those individuals had spinning rods on their packs. We saw several day hikers who also had spinning rigs with them. Not one fly rod, though.
So there you have it: a fishing "secret" for one of the hardest-hit high-lakes fisheries in the state. The gear chuckers swarm these lakes, and they find lots of little dinkers. But for sizeable fish, you need to skate small flies on the surface during the evening hatch. (note that the shorelines aren't conducive to traditional casting -- you'll have to do a lot of side-arm casting, backcasting parallel to the shoreline, and roll casting). But these lakes are deep and drop off steeply not to far from shore. There is a lot of downed trees and limbs lining the bottoms just off shore -- in 3 to 15 feet of water -- so lots of holding areas for the fish. All in all, great water for a sustained high lakes fishery.
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