Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Fishing w my dad

At the beginning of this month, my dad and I went fishing in the Uintas. (W couldn't go because he had a mild sprain to his ankle, and S and N were staying home because some old friends were coming for a visit.)

I've been to this lake before, three years ago, and it was good fishing at that point, but we haven't had the chance to go back, though we've tried and been foiled once because of the hardness of the way.

At the beginning of July, we got out of the car and started walking at 8:40. Across wilderness with no trail. By 10:45 we were at the lake--a 2 mile hike going at one mile per hour across the terrain. We fished for an hour and a half until 12:15, by which point we had each caught our limit of 8 fish not counting the ones we threw back as too small. We cooked them and were finished eating by 2. And then we did catch and release for another hour, each catching 10 fish--mostly brooks (great red coloring on several) and also some cutthroats and one tiger trout (caught by my dad, but not big like most tigers I've seen, this one at maybe seven inches). Then we took the two mile (two hour) hike out, a two hour drive home. 


A sign I saw the day before we went fishing, as I walked around campus trying to clear my mind.

At the base of a boulderfield that almost foiled our trip one time in the past, and then definitely foiled it another time in the past. This time, we walked along the base of the field and didn't get tangled up in it.




Last time we were there, a dead elk was rotting, front half in the water and hind half out of the water. The water was lower this time I guess, so the skull was mostly out of the water and I brought it all the way out with a stick to take pictures of it.







My dad caught a really nice cutt on the first cast. This promised fast fishing, but on the first side of the lake we didn't catch more than a few.








Still on the first side of the lake, looking over to the other side and the talus slope.

I like these rock formations among the boulders.


One of the things I liked about this scene was the flowers, which aren't very visible here.






So I got closer to the flowers. For scale, take a look at (left to right) the second flower. ON the left-most petal, you'll see a mosquito hovering.





Me trying to take one a them selfies with a fish.






This area is where the fishing picked up.






I caught my limit within a dozen feet of getting to the other side of the lake. And my dad caught his before he could even get to the other side.





Here they are, as we're getting ready to clean and cook em








On the hike back we passed a sappy tree




And a fungusy rock