Wind Rivers Camp Day 2 & 4

[SkunkedAgain]

Second day of the camp we did a trek from our camp on Middle Lake...

Over past Clover Lake where the fish were larger and pretty hungry if you had a fly on, I had the spin rod so only caught a few brookies...



Then we continued up past Cook Lake to the stream between there and Mendarren Lake, it was full of little brookies again the fly rods ruled...



Then it was up to Mendarren Lake, where I decided to put a fly on the spin rod with a chunk of tree branch as a bobber, it worked great... I went back to catching fish at will... This was a great lake to fish the fish were bigger and hungry and we caught over a hundred between the crew in about an hour or so... Great fighters too...



Here's another view of the same lake...



Then we returned to Cook Lake to fish on the way back, it was by far the hot spot on our trip... The fish were so hungry they would jump out of the water trying to take a bobber held above the surface... We nailed several hundred fish here in two hours... I know I was around fifty fish and I loaned my spin rod to another boy that didn't take one...



Then we returned to camp to call it a day...

Day 4, I was burned out from day 3 so I skipped the day hikes into the waterfall and Upper Cathedral lake and instead stayed at Cathedral Lake and played with these guys...









It was a fun day, the Mac's were about 18" and the Brookies were 16" so Cathedral was the big fish capital of this trip for me... This was my secluded fishing spot durring the day it was so fun... Nice spot to take a bath too...



Anyway we cooked up the Mac's that night over a rock in the fire and they were incredible eating... We ended up with 5 Macs and two brookies that we kept, but they fed all 12 of us and we were hungry so they were good fish.. I did see one fish cruising the lake that had to be 6 to 8 lbs... I couldn't believe that big of fish in a high mountain lake... Anyway got to run, but these were the main fishing days of the trip... Later J
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[TyeDyeTwins]

Simply awesome! What a great report. Glad you figured out the inline process. Thanks for sharing your trip!

Now go get a fly rod!
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[SkunkedAgain]

Hey thanks for the help on the in line thing, and guess it might have been in the other post, but one of the other leaders ended up with my 3WT pole, so I packed one in there, but didn't get to use it much... I love my 3WT it's so much fun fishing drys.... But this trip was more about getting the other guys to have some fun, I get my share throughout the year... plus I didn't mind having to switch things up and see if I could still do it old school... Later J
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[dtayboyz]

Nice post, went there on a high adventure campout when I was 14. Now I'm a fat old 50 yr old. What a flood if memories, Thanx. Dale.
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[SkunkedAgain]

I'm glad you liked it. Guess we need to have scouts for adults so we still can do that kind of stuff when we get older. It sure is fun to get out there. I got one of those 3" air mats to sleep on this year and wow what a difference. I get up ready to go and rested not stiff and sore from all the rocks under my bed. Major improvement for tent sleeping. Catch ya later J
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[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

What a beautiful place to get into some fish....thanks for sharing.
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[runnoft]

Thanks for posting this. I spent 6 days on those lakes 39 years ago. Brought back some great memories!
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[SkunkedAgain]

You're welcome, I figured it was you and your twins kind of place. Pretty hard finding many spots more beautiful than this area. I was glad the fishing was equally as good. It's a long trip, but worth the drive. Later J
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[SkunkedAgain]

I'll bet not much has changed there in 40 years. It's a great spot, I'm glad I got to go enjoy it as well. Glad I could stir up some memories for you. Later J
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[brookieguy1]

Nice post, Skunkedagain. I love those alpine waters! Now tell me, is the Cook Lake you were fishing the same Cook Lake where the Wyoming State (world) record golden was caught? Like 11 pounds of golden trout?!
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[Bigguyone1]

Love that area - the pictures brought back lots of memories as I grew up in that area (pinedale area) and love getting back up there!
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[troutcreek]

Not the same Cook lake
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[TyeDyeTwins]

[quote SkunkedAgain]You're welcome, I figured it was you and your twins kind of place.[/quote]

Yep, you bet your butt it is. Well put sir!

It might just be on my hit list. Got some California spots I wanna hit 1st though.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks, and I have no idea about the record golden. I don't know if there are goldens in Cook or not. I heard they were in Valentine, but they were the only ones I knew of ahead of time. The fish in Cook were sort of malnourished big heads small bodies. Lots of fish, I doubt that would be a record size lake, but I don't know. If you told me that before I would have fished it a lot harder. Later J
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[SkunkedAgain]

I figured as much, oh one thing I forgot to mention. I packed a float tube and waders in with me and for the first time it didn't really help much. I did catch a few more and bigger fish the first day, but the next time the guys on shore did better. So I won't pack that into those lakes again. Hey I look forward to your report when you hit this area, you always put a great read together. Good luck. J
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