Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Island Lake

The temps are dropping quickly here in western Colorado.  I absolutely love this time of year.  Watching the seasons change is a wonderful experience, and a good reminder that change is often necessary in life.  Though hard, change is usually good.

I really wanted to hit up a few lakes on the Grand Mesa before winter took its grasp.  However, I was a weekend too short.  A few storms have pounded the mesa and snow is present already.  I decided to brave it anyways, but the mighty ford focus wasn’t built for the backcountry.  Ice and mud quickly made me change my mind.  I was limited to the main highway.  I decided Island Lake would be my best chance for quality fish.  I put my float tube on my back and trudged through the snow.



Ah, I was the only one on the water today.  Island is a beautiful place, but gets hit pretty hard due to its location and ease of access.  However, there are still some monsters swimming in her depths.  It seems a 10lb+ splake is brought in every so often.  The old splake record (1976) of 18lb was caught out of island.  It has potential to be an amazing fishery.

I rigged up a worm to drift while I kicked out to deeper water.  Almost immediately I was met with the ever-annoying planter bow.



Plenty of these runts today.

On the other pole I rigged up a jig and dropped it down deep.  Soon I found my first splake of the day.



Moving from shallow to deep produced many fish that looked almost identical to that one.  I did run in to a few brook trout though their size was dismal.  This one was the most colored up.



I used a variety of techniques looking for the bigger fish.  It never really happened.  I had one splake at about 18" slip away before I could get a picture, but other than that I could not find any of the older class splake.






However...splake are really neat.




It turned out to be a fun day.  The weather was a bit on the cold side, but fast fishing helped keep me warm.  If this age class of splake has enough food to grow and thrive Island will be amazing in the coming years.



life is short...live it well


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Da Burrrrry

Back to Strawberry, Yootah (UT) with my family for the weekend.  We always turn to Strawberry when the temps drop, and boy did they drop. BRRR!

It was a good choice on our part, the fishing was phenomenal.  Anytime you have a 30+ fish day on the berry it's a good day!  The temps were frigid, and the wind didn't help one bit...but it was worth it.  Totally worth it.

Trolling, jigs, spinners, and bait all produced.










 This guy was caught on a jig, but coughed up some minnow remains.







Now isn't this just kind of cute?  Mini-crawdad 







Life is short, live it well



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

I'm back...

Sorry for the hiatus!  It's been an extremely busy season of life.  Sadly fishing has taken a backseat to many things from vacations, family get-togethers, hunting, work, and well...the weather.

My wife and I were recently able to go to the Yellowstone area for our one year anniversary!  We counted ourselves lucky for going before all the government nonsense closed our precious National Parks.

Here is a pic dump of the trip.  Fishing posts will resume shortly...



























































 The pure majesty of this corner of the world is awe inspiring.  I took about a bazillion more pictures...what a trip.



Life is short, live it well