Lewiskm3
08-01-2007, 05:29 AM
So, after much planning, tying and anticipation, I finally headed up to the Winds for the first time since 2004, and it had been too long. Amazing trip! Packed about 50 miles in a week, hit a bunch of different waters, and finally landed that elusive trophy Golden.
The second day in, as I was fishing a brookie lake, my camera decided to take another bath, and it was out of commission for several days, during which I landed the biggest Golden of the trip. Yeah, no pic, no proof, whatever. It was just shy of 23 in and weighed about 4 lbs, caught on a scud being fished on a type 5 sink tip. The drought and heat had taken their toll and the fish were deep for the most part. I do have some pics of fish caught a couple days later, but no bruisers. (although I can't figure out how to attach them). Just the coloration of that fish had me in awe, and after seeing goldens in hand for the first time, they truly are indisputably the prettiest trout there is, (with colorado river cutts coming in second).
I know this conversation has come up before, but for the first time for me I landed two fish at once. At one lake I was fishing a hopper/scud combo at an inlet, and first cast a golden nailed the hopper, and half-way through the fight another nailed the scud. Awesome! A few days earlier we talked to some angler's that fished that lake for 2 days and didn't catch anything, so they stuck to the stream. I was in double digits in less than 2 hours on that lake, which goes to show how fast a lake can change in the backcountry, (or they were just idiot fisherman).
I will NOT disclose the location of the big Golden, as there was already more pressure than I would have hoped for that deep in the back country, or the location of any of the other lakes I nailed. I will say if any of you have never lost yourself in the Wind River Mountains, then you truly haven't experienced the pinnacle of backcountry adventures, and no matter where you go you will be amazed. I've been there 4 times in the last 6 years, and look forward to hitting it as often as possible.
After the Winds, my cousin and I headed west to our family reunion up at Redfish Lake, and I had a lazy day tossing dries to bows on the Salmon below Stanley. The last two weeks could have been some of the greatest of my life, and now it's back to school in Virginia, which starts again tomorrow. THPPPPT!
"Throughout this century I have roamed this wilderness, communing with nature, observing other creatures along with myself, merely desiring to live and let live. Because of this aloneness, I've learned to love, not only those of my own kind, but all life within a wilderness; the birds, the beasts, the trees, the flowers, and the grasses of the land. Only in wilderness, it seems, is man's love so thoroughly and completely returned, so unselfishly shared" - Finis Mitchell
The second day in, as I was fishing a brookie lake, my camera decided to take another bath, and it was out of commission for several days, during which I landed the biggest Golden of the trip. Yeah, no pic, no proof, whatever. It was just shy of 23 in and weighed about 4 lbs, caught on a scud being fished on a type 5 sink tip. The drought and heat had taken their toll and the fish were deep for the most part. I do have some pics of fish caught a couple days later, but no bruisers. (although I can't figure out how to attach them). Just the coloration of that fish had me in awe, and after seeing goldens in hand for the first time, they truly are indisputably the prettiest trout there is, (with colorado river cutts coming in second).
I know this conversation has come up before, but for the first time for me I landed two fish at once. At one lake I was fishing a hopper/scud combo at an inlet, and first cast a golden nailed the hopper, and half-way through the fight another nailed the scud. Awesome! A few days earlier we talked to some angler's that fished that lake for 2 days and didn't catch anything, so they stuck to the stream. I was in double digits in less than 2 hours on that lake, which goes to show how fast a lake can change in the backcountry, (or they were just idiot fisherman).
I will NOT disclose the location of the big Golden, as there was already more pressure than I would have hoped for that deep in the back country, or the location of any of the other lakes I nailed. I will say if any of you have never lost yourself in the Wind River Mountains, then you truly haven't experienced the pinnacle of backcountry adventures, and no matter where you go you will be amazed. I've been there 4 times in the last 6 years, and look forward to hitting it as often as possible.
After the Winds, my cousin and I headed west to our family reunion up at Redfish Lake, and I had a lazy day tossing dries to bows on the Salmon below Stanley. The last two weeks could have been some of the greatest of my life, and now it's back to school in Virginia, which starts again tomorrow. THPPPPT!
"Throughout this century I have roamed this wilderness, communing with nature, observing other creatures along with myself, merely desiring to live and let live. Because of this aloneness, I've learned to love, not only those of my own kind, but all life within a wilderness; the birds, the beasts, the trees, the flowers, and the grasses of the land. Only in wilderness, it seems, is man's love so thoroughly and completely returned, so unselfishly shared" - Finis Mitchell