Imagine yourself on a long hike deep in the high country; when suddenly you stumble upon a taintless, crystal clear alpine lake at 11,000 feet above sea level with high rock wall cliffs piercing through the surface of the lake, while snow scattered mountain tops complete the landscape. You can smell the wild as you feel nature surround you. This is Lost Lakes. Lakes is plural because, you guessed it, there are two lakes. An upper and lower lake. Both have trout. LOTS of trout. It is the pursuit of these trout that brings me, Kyle, and the Miller Family here to Lost Lakes.
The ranch I work for owns this beautiful property, which is adjacent to the Rio Grande Resivore. This is where the Rio Grande River begins it's long and powerful journey through Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico (say that fast 10 times). Lost Lakes can be found hidden in the Rio Grande National forest and was at some point owned by the U.S. Government. Not many people fish the lakes. I'd say they get fished maybe 20 times a year. So in other words, the fishing is amazing. And this day would be no different.
It was a warm, breezy day, with very few clouds. We haven't had much rain so it was also dry and dusty. The Miller Family consists of David, Lori, Garrett, and Megan. They aren't fly fishers and have come to the ranch as part of our promotional kids stay free week. They are however, a very outdoors-type family. So I knew this day would be great.
The lakes consists of brook trout and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The brookies out number the cutties 10 to 1 which if any of you know anything about brook trout you know they spawn twice a year- some would argue all year- instead of once a year like most trout. This means that they can take over a lake or stream in 5 years to a decade if you let them. So part of our mission today as "caretakers" of Lost Lakes we have to harvest lots of brook trout each year to give the cutthroats a chance.
The day started with David, Garret, and me in one boat, Kyle, Lori, and Megan in the other. The boats are powered by electric trolling motors which I like because you can sneak up on fish( Electric motors make little to no sound). Our morning consisted of lots of tight lines near the mouth of a creek where the cutthroats were spawning. You could actually see them spawning in water just a few inches deep. Very cool!
David and Lori switched boats which if you are keeping score means I had Lori and Garret and Kyle had David and Megan. The afternoon provided gusty conditions with little to no break in the wind. This made it difficult to control the boat with just a trolling motor. I managed to get my boat against a huge cliff wall that yielded us shelter from the blustery conditions. This is where Garret excelled in casting against the cliff and reeling back to the boat. I was yelling fish on almost every cast. By the end of the day my boat landed over 40 fish and so did Kyle's boat (the kids were counting).
Landing over 40 fish in one day is a special day; but I'm not a numbers guy when it comes to fishing. It's all about the experience for me and my clients. I want to make them comfortable in their style of fishing to make our trip more productive and thus in return, a great experience for me and the angler. This is my day to day challenge and sometimes struggle. I love my job!
The ranch I work for owns this beautiful property, which is adjacent to the Rio Grande Resivore. This is where the Rio Grande River begins it's long and powerful journey through Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico (say that fast 10 times). Lost Lakes can be found hidden in the Rio Grande National forest and was at some point owned by the U.S. Government. Not many people fish the lakes. I'd say they get fished maybe 20 times a year. So in other words, the fishing is amazing. And this day would be no different.
It was a warm, breezy day, with very few clouds. We haven't had much rain so it was also dry and dusty. The Miller Family consists of David, Lori, Garrett, and Megan. They aren't fly fishers and have come to the ranch as part of our promotional kids stay free week. They are however, a very outdoors-type family. So I knew this day would be great.
The lakes consists of brook trout and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The brookies out number the cutties 10 to 1 which if any of you know anything about brook trout you know they spawn twice a year- some would argue all year- instead of once a year like most trout. This means that they can take over a lake or stream in 5 years to a decade if you let them. So part of our mission today as "caretakers" of Lost Lakes we have to harvest lots of brook trout each year to give the cutthroats a chance.
The day started with David, Garret, and me in one boat, Kyle, Lori, and Megan in the other. The boats are powered by electric trolling motors which I like because you can sneak up on fish( Electric motors make little to no sound). Our morning consisted of lots of tight lines near the mouth of a creek where the cutthroats were spawning. You could actually see them spawning in water just a few inches deep. Very cool!
David and Lori switched boats which if you are keeping score means I had Lori and Garret and Kyle had David and Megan. The afternoon provided gusty conditions with little to no break in the wind. This made it difficult to control the boat with just a trolling motor. I managed to get my boat against a huge cliff wall that yielded us shelter from the blustery conditions. This is where Garret excelled in casting against the cliff and reeling back to the boat. I was yelling fish on almost every cast. By the end of the day my boat landed over 40 fish and so did Kyle's boat (the kids were counting).
Landing over 40 fish in one day is a special day; but I'm not a numbers guy when it comes to fishing. It's all about the experience for me and my clients. I want to make them comfortable in their style of fishing to make our trip more productive and thus in return, a great experience for me and the angler. This is my day to day challenge and sometimes struggle. I love my job!
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