High Lake Snow

I actually didn't watch the Penn State game today. Can you believe that? I decided I needed to take advantage of one of the last nice weekends of weather and probably my last weekend with free time. So, we decided to hike into a high lake (by Oregon standards, only around 3000 feet) for some fishing and camping.

It was a short hike and the weather was holding out for the most part, switching between sun and spitting rain. When we got to the lake, there were fish rising. By the time I got my fishing stuff set up, the fish had a change of plans and were nowhere to be found. I decided to fish a streamer for a while when all of the sudden I looked to the other end of the lake and saw these whisps of clouds coming over the lake. It looked like snow, but it just didn't seem cold enough for that. Quickly these clouds made their way over and I was hit by a wall of cold air and snow. That was more than I had bargained for and I started to pack up my stuff when just like that the weather cleared.

With the weather clearing, the fish started coming up again. I waded out and waited for a rise near me. When finally a couple fish near me started rising I tried to cast in front of them and intercept their path. Didn't happen. I tried again. Nothing. I finally realized the fish were moving so slowly in the cold weather I needed to cast much closer to the initial rise. I tried this tactic and was rewarded by a violent (by lake standards) rise. I pulled tight and felt the sweet head shake of a fish. Then I felt the not so sweet feeling of no resistance. I had been broken off. Heartened by the little bit of success I tied on a new fly and managed to catch a nice 16" brown trout. (Unfortunately, my camerawoman was too busy trying to stay warm to take a picture.) My short window of nice weather and good fishing closed and it started to rain (luckily it had warmed up a little). The fish shut down and I decided it was probably a good time to go. With both Britt and I wet and cold, we changed plans and drove back to Springfield. It sure felt nice to be warm and dry again.