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3. First kayak fishing of the year - but again, the flowers outdid the fish

Had to heave the "banana boat" up on the Jeep sooner or later, and my back isn't even bothering me today! It finally took its maiden voyage for the year, out on good old [REDACTED] Pond. Once gain, the flowers were spectacular, but the fish were being finicky and hard to hook besides. There was a major midge hatch going on, something in the size 22 or smaller skimming across the waters and little brookies leaping out of the water after them. Some were not so little from the amount of water they moved...only brought two perch and two brookies to hand, the second perch taking a cricket-pattern dry fly! The first one was very colorful, as you can see from the photo. the brookies were certainly pretty too, but my camera battery ran out before I could shoot the larger one (9")...plus I missed some terrific sunset shots, the whole lake lit up in orange and pink.

I will be back there soon - as the waters warm the brookies all swarm into the ice-cold feeder creek and fall readily victim to my hoppers. And I know there has to be a couple of real bruisers in there somewhere, like I finally found in Reid Lake...saw a variety of other insects besides the midges, several different sizes and colors of both mayflies and caddisflies, but no major hatching except for the midges. I got a few fish to respond to a #16 caddis with black body & hackle and grey wings, and a few to hit the cricket.

At least I'm finally getting out there again! When I finally get to the Rifle I'm sure I'll have some bigger fish to show off. And probably more flowers...

Jonathon

Ok cool, is it easy to wheel it long distances if you have to?


Thanks Johnathon

David

Nice post , sounds like a beautiful place to fish 😊

David, every fall I drag the kayak in and out of Reid Lake, which is one mile from the parking lot. Yeah, it's work, especially at my age (54 now), but the rewards for making the hike are BIG-ass perch and rainbows! Plus spectacular fall colors, bald eagles, trumpeter swans, etc. This particular place I'm showing here is only 500 feet from the parking lot to the launch, and yes, it is really beautiful, one of my favorite places to fish. I once fed my parents a nice fresh perch lunch from this lake! And the eagles are here too, plus LOTS of bears during blueberry season (there's loads of blueberry bushes under all the pines). I have never seen them, but I have heard some pretty loud grunts, in some cases probably right behind an alder thicket. I NEVER go ashore when I hear them! And I have heard as many as three grunting at each other from different directions. What are they saying? "These are MY blueberries, you stay over there!" No problem here!

Jonathon