Normally ice off for the lake our cabin is on is mid April but I had no choice but to go up there this weekend because I had to pick up gear for our annual family fishout at White Lake next weekend so on Friday afternoon my buddy and I headed out. I wasn't about to make the trip without putting some hours on the lakes that were open which were few.
Upon our arrival we had to shovel snow to drive in the last 40 meters. As expected the lake still had several inches of ice on it. After de-winterizing the cabin that night my buddy and I got our gear ready to go. We stacked a couple of the boats onto the back of my Tacoma and headed into Princeton. It looked for all intense purposes like it was going to be a miserable cool day, unlike Friday which was sunny and warm. Our first stop was Martin Lake. We met the CO there who suggested we try Alison Lake. After checking our licenses we left.
We basically had the lake to ourselves. After setting up the boats we set out. I found fish at 22 -35 feet. Lake temperature was 43 degrees. I put the chronie rods out while my buddy trolled around with some leeches on. He didn't pass over any fish so he anchored up close to me. We fished for a couple of hours and hooked only one fish. It was apparent there was low pressure system moving in. Not a good sign....it was dark, very blustery, and raining quite hard.
We were told at the local fishing store that Kump L. was opened so we decided to take a look see. There were a few anglers on the highway lakes as we made our way up to the Pike Mtn. turnoff. I was pretty skeptical that the ice was off because we drove by ponds that were still frozen. Sure enough it was true. There was a large group of guys there but everyone had their boats on their vehicles. We left and decided to drive up to Kidd to fish there. Water temp was a warm 43 degrees. There was a dozen or so fisherman going at it on the lake but from what we were told not a single fish had been taken. I hooked one small fish during the 2-3 hours we fished. We decided to pack up and call it a day. It was definitely not meant to be.
The next day (Sunday) we woke up to blue skies. We packed up and took just the Flyfisher because we didn't feel like backtracking and I don't have any extra space to store more than the two boats I'll end up having down here when we get back. Also, it had to be a short day since my buddy had to be back into Coq. by 4:30. This time we were going to fish Martin. Water temp (52 -54 degrees...the ice has been off for 2-3 weeks). Within an hour of arriving at least 7 other guys showed up. Quite a few for such a tiny piece of water. Even though it's a small lake it took us awhile to find the fish. Unfortunately the fish didn't turn on until almost noon. We managed to land 6 fish between us with the largest in the 3 lb. range on chronies and mayfly nymphs. I would have loved to stay longer since the bite was on for us but we had to get off the water at 1:00. The other guys on the lake were trollers and hooked 1 or 2 but didn't get them to the net.
Even though my Tacoma gets decent mileage what with running around to all these lakes the total cost for gas was $145. Ouch! Not so bad if you're sharing but a lot of the time it's just my wife and I heading up to the cabin.
BTW, open lakes in the Princeton- Merrit area besides the ones I mentioned are: Chain, Corbett, Courtney, Marquart, all the highway lakes like Round, Dry, Gladstone, etc.
Anybody else head out last weekend?
Author
Topic: First Interior Trip of the Season (Read 763 times)