[CovingtonFly]

I got a Sevylor inflatable kayak for $30 at a garage sale the other day so a friend and I deflated it and packed it in to Dorothy lake for a few days of camping and fishing. The Kayak is rated for 500 pounds and it held my buddy and I and both our full backpacks. I'm estimating the weight around 400+ lbs.
Tuesday afternoon we floated from the head of the lake along the western shore, opposite side of the trail, and had an absolute blast. Weather was somewhere in the upper 70's and the wind pushed us right down the lake so that we only paddled to get back into good casting position. To be honest we were using 5 ft. ultra light spinning gear but we had buggers on the end of the line with a little bullet weight for casting purposes. We had the best luck fishing in the rock slides that continue into the lake. Fishing around the islands was productive and pretty awesome as well. We caught Brookies and Cutts, about 70-30 cutt to brookie ratio. The biggest were around 14 inches, the only brookie I took a picture of was the smallest one we got, go figure, but beautiful little guy indeed.
The bugs around camp were bothersome and your not supposed to have campfires so I would take a mosquito head net and wear long pants and shirt around camp so you don't go friggin crazy. Other than that it was an awesome trip.

 

[Krystoff]

Nice report CovingtonFly! I have a sevylor trail raft (didn't get into the alpine down here in time to get a curtis raft and waiting Andy to get his out of beta) and I will be hiking into the ALW east of where you were the middle of next month.

i have a head net and long clothes but I might be spending more time in the hammock while at camp due to the bugs. Either that or spending all my time on the water.

I will be bringing a 3wt and a 5wt with floating lines and I am debating the extra weight for an intermediate line for the 5wt. I like to throw the dries around but I would love to have a sinking option as well.

Chris

 

[11961]

Sweet. How was the hike?

 

[CovingtonFly]

Dehlan, the hike was not too bad. I had the bladder rolled up and "hugged" it with both hands instead of strapping it to the pack so I didn't accidentally puncture it on a passing tree or or anything else. I was definatley glad when we got to the lake. The distance is pretty short at a mile and a half but I must have missed the info about the vertical gain.