I had a great day last weekend hiking up to Stuart lake by Leavenworth. It is a long hike for me at 5 miles, especially when carrying a raft and fishing gear, but it was worth it. I started with casting from shore and didn't see a hint of a fish, so I blew up my raft and caught my first fish about 30 seconds after I started trolling. I probably had 15 bites in two hours and must have landed 7 or 8 of them. Cutthroats, mostly 9-10 inches, and they seemed to be around 10 to 20 feet down.The water was round 55 degrees according to my thermometer, so they may not be activc much longer. The biggest one I caught was maybe 12 inches.

It is so nice to find a lake in Wa again with a healthy fish population. I don't like to post areas like this usually to protect the fish, but the length of the hike and lateness of the season means that not many fishermen will make it up there again this year.

I fished the creek on the way down and had many follows, but only landed one tiny 5 incher, which is average for the stream. I did find a hole with one who looked to be around 8-10 inches, but couldn't get him to bite.

A nice trip overall, but long and I was quite tired at the end of it.

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