Tried to get here 3 weeks ago but ran into snow on top of the hill(3800ft) Since it's
been dry we decided to give it another go. Outrageous scenery, vast canyons, very high bridges,
and of course, the Mountain made the drive itself worthwhile. Whitecaps however met us at the
ramp-blowing right in our face about 20mph(luckily for us-warm wind-50degrees). The electric
was overwhelmed by the wind most of the time making trolling difficult at best and causing
negative progress much of the time. We did catch a 16" rainbow in the first ten minutes so we
were pumped but stymied! We parked behind the big rock island and cast from the boat out
of the wind for an hour or so. First cast caught a 12" rainbow then nothing else.
The wind slowly began to subside over the next half hour and then the whitecaps
disappeared and we headed toward the other end of the lake. We trolled a trout pattern
on one pole and a black or brown wooly worm on the other- both with 2 split shots 3 ft. up from
the lure. We went nearly 3/4 of the way to the other end (by the slide area) before we hooked
another fish(17") . Then caught two more almost immediately(15", 14"). My cousin hooked a fish
that instantly jumped clear out of the water and then was gone- it looked to be 18" or better!
Continued to the end of the lake and caught a few more(16",12",10"). Got a 14" cuttroat right
where the creek comes in. Then trolled back on the south side- caught two more on the way
home- last one was 18"! Only lost two on the barbless hooks- quite amazing since the fish
were quite crazy when hooked! Total of fifteen fish (18,17,17,16,16,15,14,14,12,12, and a few
smaller ones). We released them all and if you do the same we'll all continue to have an
awesome place to fish!

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