Golden, But Not the Trout, and Stream #142

Rick and his daughter Sarah made a quick overnight backpack trip to the Chelan-Sawtooth mountains to look for gold. Not the trout, but the annual display of color by the larch trees found in a narrow habitat range in the North Cascades in Washington. 

This deciduous conifer turns bright yellow in early fall putting on a beautiful show if early snows don't make trails and camping unpleasant, if not impassible. The weather cooperated this year and gifted us two mild, beautiful days for the trip. 

This was primarily a daddy-daughter photography trip, but since we were camping at an alpine lake with trout, the trusty Fenwick pack rod from my days as a Boy Scout forty years ago had to come along with the cast-a-bubble. We arrived to the lake in early afternoon with a bit of a breeze putting a chop on the lake. 

After camp was set up, Sarah saw a couple fish jumping as she was down at the lake taking pictures. I was already getting my rod ready to see if we could add a fish to our dinner menu. I started with the trusty brown hackle yellow (which I recently learned is actually called "the professor"). The fish were no longer jumping, and none were visible, so I started blind casting. About the third cast, there was a big splash behind the bubble and a fish was on. Surprisingly stout for a fish in a lake at 7200 feet, I got it right in front of me where it splashed and twisted its way off the hook. In the range of 13" or 14" that would have made a nice complement to dinner. Working my way along the shore, I had a few more strikes, but nothing hooked. Switched to a yellow wooly bugger and promptly caught this beautiful 12-inch cutthroat, that became a tasty dinner cooked in foil on the coals a few minutes later.

Not spectacular action in the few minutes that I fished, but I'd forgotten how much fun it is to fish in beautiful locations like these high lakes. After a beautiful morning taking photos, we packed up and headed back to the trailhead, where exhausted as I was, I found enough energy to add stream #142 to my tally, jumping out of the car for a few minutes to pick up a little rainbow before turning for home.

Definitely going to try to spend some more time in the mountains next summer. Photos and fish, a good combination!