A New Place, Well Sort Of

I had no other plans this morning than to drive straight to Caples Lake. OK, I did stop for coffee at Cooks Station. I don't think I've mentioned in the past that other than good coffee, they also have really good food. They make a killer breakfast burrito that's even too much for me to eat.

Arrived at Caples at 0830 and planned to fish the sandy side of the spillway, but after a pit stop drove over to the dead tree. I didn't include any pictures because you've seen them all several times before.

Two hours of floating a mini-crawler off the bottom with a couple of white Power Eggs and a little injected air, then a mini-crawler under a bobber, and soaking rainbow Power Bait with out a look, I packed up and decided to fish a new place. First choice was the near side of the dam because I haven't fished there in about three years.

Of course the place I wanted to fish was filled so I passed by and went out to the tip of the peninsula. I've never fished here before and the only thing I could see that was detrimental was the depth of the water. It was a bit shallow out about fifty feet.

Now the problem you have when you fish with a bobber and it's windy (it's always windy at Caples) is keeping the bobber in the water and not hugging the shore. I solved this problem by fishing with the wind behind me. It's so simple even a caveman could do it.

With a mini-crawler under a bobber on one rod and rainbow Power Bait on the other, I parked in the red camping chair, in the sun. It was a bit nippy up there (elevation 7806) this morning and the sun felt good. Since I hadn't been in this part of the lake (it would be considered half way to the back of the lake) I snapped a bunch of shots for your viewing pleasure. I'll let the captions explain where and what they are.      

Directly behind where I was sitting

OK, I think you have this one.

That little spot of beige to the left of center is the public launch.

From the tip of the peninsula to the back of the lake

Still a little snow way up high (around 9000 ft)

Back toward the resort on the other side of the peninsula

The dam (not to be confused with the spillway)

Just a rocky mountain face. Note not many trees up there.

An hour after I got here, I put out one rod with rainbow PB and some sweet corn and the other with rainbow PB and garlic. In less than fifteen minutes I got the first and only hookup of the day on the garlic. It was a good sized Rainbow. Jumped a couple of times, pulled the drag a couple of times and then managed to tangle up the line with the other rod so that when it took off again, it broke the line. When I looked at the broken end it looked like the break was at the swivel, so maybe a bad knot.

At 12:30 I was hungry enough to pack up and head down the road a couple miles to Kirkwood Inn (where Juan and I ate when he was up) for a burger and fries with plans to come back for another go. When I got there, they had some construction going on inside and the only way to get anything to eat was via the patio and it was so crowded with tourists I just passed. I could drive all the way home and eat in the time it would have taken to get something from them and probably better for me than a greasy burger and fries too.

That's it, one hookup and a fumbled fight. maybe next time.     

Mark