One Last Shot At Red Lake

Shot out of the house at 0730 and after stopping at Cooks for coffee, drove up the hill in hopes that there might be one small Brookie waiting for me at Red Lake.

Passing Silver Lake, on the way, should have been a clue as to what I was going to run into. Silver Lake was frozen over. So was Caples. But, the blasting guys at Carson pass were gone, yeh.... All I had to do was drive a little way over the pass and I could see that there would be no Brookies this year. Red Lake was frozen over too. Must have been those 18 degree mornings. They do it every time.

A quick u-turn and back down the hill (When you live in the mountains, you tend to think of an 8000 foot pass as a hill) and a turn at Bear River Reservoir. Got to the gate at 10:00 and sure enough it was closed. It is December after all. But would that stop a guy with 4 wheel drive? I think not.

Apparently I wasn't the only one the gate didn't stop, because when I got down to the lake (After driving over the hill beside the gate) there were 4 other trucks parked. Two guys were fishing in the spot I normally fish, so I took up residence next to, but far enough away not to interfere, where they were.

Since they had just gotten there, there was no way to tell how the catchin would be. They were fishing meal worms under bobbers and Power Bait on a two hook rig with a 1/4 oz sinker attached to the line. I put out one rig with PB and sweet corn scent on my usual slip sinker rig and the pink Kastmaster (small sized 1/8th oz) on my Okuma with 2# test. No interest in the Kastmaster, so I put a second rig out with Power Bait.

Sitting there in the sun, somewhat warm, catching three small (11 inch) Rainbows while my neighbors caught one a peace. At 11:30 the wind started to blow and it got real cold, real quick. I estimate the temperature dropped 15 degrees between 11:30 and Noon.

My neighbors pulled up stakes at Noon and since they had one fish each, it didn't do them any good (You know what I mean), they dropped them off for me to take to Bob. We had talked about Bob (I plow for fish) during our chatting. You know me, I'm always chatting with those close by.

Since I now had 5 on my stringer, I didn't have any other option but to pack it up too and head home too.

I really, really, really wanted some Brookies to smoke. Guess it'll just have to wait until next year. Sure hope it's better Brook Trout fishing than it was this year.

Till next time.

Mark