Hiked up to Rachel, nice hike except the last 1.5 miles is grueling and the trail is in poor shape. But the lake is FULL of eager cutthroat trout so I won't complain. Fish were aggressively feeding on bugs on the surface (as in jumping OUT of the water hard) so I used a float bobber and a dry fly, I believe it was a renegade but it's been so long since I tied dry flys that I forgot what it was. Anyway, I got instant strikes and some hard ones at that. My bobber even got smashed a few times. The fish here are healthy and there are some in the 12" range which I think is pretty good for a 5,000 ft + lake. I consistantly caught/hooked fish. Didn't fish real long as I wanted to get up to the Rampart lakes to check them out. I didn't fish those lakes as I ran out of time, but there was the same kind of action and cruising fish up there as well. Falls coming and it's a great time to hit these Alpine Lakes! I'll post a more detailed BLOG later.

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