Hope you guys dont mind but come on! We cant shoot muzzle loaders EVERY day now can we? Well maybe i can but i wont until my 2 other muzzle loaders come in
I took my nephew and the dog camping 6-07-11 through 6-10-11 and we had a blast!
Our first day we headed up into the mountains near Stonewall Colorado and took our normal route, deeper into the mountains where we like to set up and camp near a stream.
Along the road we drove up on a big ol fat blond colored black bear Sitting in the road! Once he saw us, it was like a tornado ripping through the trees. Its amazing how fast they can get up and go.
We found our camping area empty and so we pitched tent, set up the stove, got the wood supply ready for the night and set up all the sleeping bags - pads inside the tent.
Camp:
Hes not really a hunch back, he just pulls stuff like that when you can't see clearly through the camera.
Once camp was squared away we drove over to North Lake and got all set up. Around 11am,While i was getting my string untangled i hear my nephew laughing and so i figured it was my dog acting funny as usual. Nope! That lil kid went a caught a nice trout on his second cast! The first day was pretty slow due to getting their so late, evening was better and we caught a total of 3 fish for the day. I did wade out into nut deep water to try out my new $25 fly rod and its a lot of fun! It certainly will be a learning process but even while i was jacking around trying to figure things out, i saw a silver flash come up through the lake and a trout latched onto my fly. Sadly though i didn't expect it at all and he was off just as fast as he got on LOL.
North Lake,
Day 2: We started out with a simple breakfast of oat meal and a couple cokes to get our chilled bones warmed up. It was a cold night to say the least.
In the morning around 10am the trout were hitting like crazy but kept getting off our lines. We were able to catch 3 fish and cook them for lunch later that day.
And not far behind a meal of course.......
Something about the Kastmaster lures was really bothering me. We've used them with great success over the past 10+ years but ALWAYS lose more fish than we can reel in. I decided to head over to the local store in Stonewall to get some cold drinks and some junk food to keep the kid happy.
While i was there i picked up a $12 reel which turned out to be awesome, and a package of new hooks to put on the cast masters. The store bought hooks have much larger barbs and i got to tell you, it was the best $2 i ever spent in my life! The hooks that come with the Kastmasters have very little of a barb and of course the fish easily fall off.
Heading back to camp we took a nap, ate dinner around 6pm and at 6:45 we headed out to the lake again for some late evening fishing.
I had a good feeling on the way, especially when we ran into a herd of 30+ elk grazing in the field " Funny they weren't there during hunting season" to the north. A mile or two down the road we ran into a doe feeding in the aspens.
At the lake, i again am stuck in the truck untangling my fly rod and i hear Bobby " My nephew" laughing his rear end off. I go running down asking whats so funny and he goes, " I got one on my first cast!!" Damned if he didn't! It was a good sized fish too.
In the end, we caught our limit in 45 minutes with only 4 fish getting off the hooks due to us not pulling up fast enough. The new hooks worked like a charm and fixed our previous issues.
Bobby's last fish of the night.
Mines bigger right?
The next morning and final day, we got up early and out on the lake before 8am and hammered them again LOL. We went home with 8 nice fish frying trout and left on a positive note.
One heck of a 3 day fishing trip!
I got some movies i will put together tonight and upload.
Not a muzzle loader story but.....
