Fish On

It was a warm spring day. Time for fishing. We gathered our rods, packed some snacks and drinks and drove up the mountain to the Gold Lake Basin. We stopped at Bassett Station for water and worms. I haven't fished in some 2o years, so the notion of Power Bait and Ugly Stiks are new fangled, but I'll give them a shot. My boy wanted to fish! The man at the counter in Bassett's recomended Sardine Lake. Lower Sardine it is!

I invited a buddy of mine who is an avid fisherman. Why he brought binoculars fishing, I wasn't sure, but I was curious.

We casted our loures and salmon egg bated hooks into the water. We worked our piece of shore line for some time without as much as a nibble. There were boats on the lake, some row boats, electric motor boats, kayaks.. most all of them blissfully floating along without much fish catching action. There was this one boat in the middle pulling brook trout consistenetly. My buddy, Jeff, pulled his binoculars and took a closer look. "Power Bait!" he exclaimed. Okay.. Power Bait.. "They're using power bait with heavy weights." The trout were at the bottom where it was cooler.
First cast.. fish! A few nibbles followed. A man and boy adjacent to us got a fish. Same method. Could it be a fish caching bonanza!? Not exactly. We caught one more. Both by Jeffie, the fisherman. Ethan and I tried, but we soon became bored - the snacks were eaten and we tried a few worms.. No luck. Time for a new lake.

We headed up the road for higher water - Gold Lake. There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. The melt was intense. There were few fisherman. We searched for a deep spot, since it seemed to be where the fish were. Gold Lake to me looked shallow. We didn't find any deep holes and there were no fish jumping on the lake like Sardine, so we didn't stay long.

Heading down the road towards home, we stopped at Salmon Lake. There was still ice on the lake but no bugs. Fish activity low, but I did catch some good pictures.

We packed the fish in snow in an old tool box for dinner. We weren't prepared for traditional means for fish storage, but it worked.

We foil wrapped the trout in butter and herbs and threw them on the grill. Yum! We were hungry after our long day of adventure on the lakes. Ethan would not taste the trout. More for me.