Monday Morning

Yesterday we were between storms and I thought I’d take a run up Highway 88 and check out the lakes. Since the storms have been warm, I thought the higher lakes might be ice free by now. My hopes were dashed when I got to Silver Lake. There was about 15 feet of open water right at the dam and the rest of the lake was still frozen. Being the die hard I am, I continued up the hill toward Caples and Red Lakes. I did a little research on ice out at Caples and Red Lakes and the only article I found was dated 5/11/2004 where there was fishing at that time on the lakes.

Caples Lake had small areas of water and the rest was still frozen. Red Lake had some open water, but it was toward the middle of the lake and not accessible from the shore. So again, my hopes were dashed. I really hate having dashed hopes.

On the way back, I did some information checking for a lake called Lake Margaret. That will be in the next post. I also took a look at Kirkwood Lake and the road is still impassable.

On the way up the road I noticed that the closed sign was off for Bear River Resort at the turn off. Took a drive down the road (It’s about 3 miles) to the lake. I had hopes that the gate would be open. Again dashed hopes. The good thing is that the lake is really full. It’s risen about ten feet since I was there two weeks ago and is about ten to twelve feet from the top of the dam.

When I got to the water, I tried the usual Panther Martins and Kastmasters, but the real reason I walked all the way down is I wanted to try the Rapala Clackin’ Rap lures I bought a month ago. I put 12 lb test on my new reel and since I haven’t gotten my new rod yet, I put the reel on my 7’ Ugly Stik. I bought three colors of the Clackin’ Rap. Olive Green, Purpledescent, and Hot Steel. Actually these were the only three colors Fisherman’s Warehouse had at the time. I didn’t get any hits, but a couple of things to watch for. One, as I said before, they are really heavy (3 ½ oz) so they sink fast. Two, when you get near shore, pull up the tip of your rod to keep it from getting snagged on the bottom. I got one snagged, but managed to get it loose. Don’t want to lose a 9 buck lure. Since I wasn’t feeling in the pink of health, I called it early and came home.

I suspect it will be another two weeks before we can get to fish Silver, Caples, and Red Lakes. Remember. Caples is pretty much fish free since last Summer, so it will have to wait for the stocking program to start before any catching will begin. I’ll check again in a couple of weeks and let everybody know what they look like. Easy for me since I live “just down the road”. Next time I’ll talk about Lake Margaret.

Till then, remember: “A bad day fishing is better than any day at work”.

Shoreman