Dale's Tale

Ugh. No one can take me fishing. I left my fly tying stuff at home. I guess I'll just do a story.

I arrived at Sylvan Dale around 8:00, excited as could be to get on the water before. The last time I was there, I had netted a twenty incher on the third cast. Same flies, same conditions, why not the same fish? But no, it had been an hour and I still had nothing to show for it. I decided to move down to the next lake, Island, to see what was going on down there. I walked the whole lake, and finally hooked into a nice rainbow. Two head throws and a huge jump, he was gone. So I made my way back toward Mother Lake. On the way, I stopped and looked at the four big trout feeding two inches behind a huge log jam. Like Erin once said, "It shooshed us like a mother. Look but don't touch." But at that moment, I made a decision. I was going to touch. My first cast managed to land perfectly behind the logs right in the view of the fish. He ate it, and I set. Fish... what? Nothing. I missed the strike. I was so disappointed that I missed my fish, I almost left. But I put in another cast. Not good enough, and way behind the fish. But wait. The fish turned, swam down, and ate the Chronomid I tied the night before. Set, Fish on!  I battled, and then suddenly,

There was weight in the net.

A Tale From The Vale

Loch Vale, that is. It's probably one of the prettiest lakes I've seen, and the fishing can be amazing. All Greenbacks, and occasionally a big one. During spawning, they turn bright orange and red. I got a chance to fish up at the Loch a year ago for my birthday. The weather was nice, there was no wind, and my backpack only weighed a ton. But we still made it up, gear and all, after an hour and forty five minute hike.  Waders were put on and we started casting. My friend and I suddenly yelled in unison, "Got one!" Both of the fish came to the net, beetle in their mouths. We worked our way around the whole lake, picking up a few fish as we went. When we arrived at the small creek that feeds into the Loch, things really started to pick up. We first fished the inlet of the lake, catching five fish each before heading up to the stream. At the first hole in the stream, fish were stacked like a big pancake breakfast. We had to lay down and cast to the fish without spooking them, but the hole must have delivered ten fish for me and my friend that round. We fished out way up the creek, catching more and more fish. Once we made it a ways up the creek, we would come back to the first hole and work a few more fish. By the end of the day, me and my friend both had fish counts in the high twenties. What a cool birthday! We hiked down quickly and caught the last bus of the day, saving us another three mile hike back to our car. We stopped for ice cream on the way home, which ended up being a bad idea (my friend threw up in the car). Other than that small thing, the day was super cool. Here's the fish, for anyone who actually read this far: