# Pounding Ponds



## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Early Sunday morning, I took a long drive to explore some dearly missed land and to hopefully find some unknown treasures along the way.

My first stop was at a creek that has always grabbed my attention, but never enough for me to give it a shot. Unfortunately, this creek wasn't cooperating and I moved on, higher up the mountain.

Next stop was a tiny pond that I'd scouted from the maps. By its size, I really didn't expect to find stocked trout, but there's always the possibility of bucket stocking, especially with its close proximity to a popular fishing hole.










Nice little pond, but it was only about a foot deep and without any fish. Too bad. Just up the road, I thought I'd work off my skunk by catching some hatchery rainbows from a murky puddle on the upstream end of a heavily fished reservoir.










Several came to hand and they fought deceptively to their size, but this was just a practice session and it was time for some light bushwhacking in search of a nameless pond.

Once I reached it, I beheld its beauty and crossed my fingers while casting away in hopes of a strike.



















A strike never came and I concluded that it either didn't have fish, or that I just couldn't find them with what I was throwing.

Moving on, my little Sentra was able to slowly get me into a place that I knew had fish. Upon arrival, the surface was rippled with rising trout.

The fish didn't want anything to do with my favorite Blue Foxes, jigs, or minnows it seemed. After a trial and error period, I finally resorted to the good old nightcrawler, which brought in a little tiger.










A couple of hatchery bows came to play as well and luckily they were hooked in the lip. Not wanting to keep using worms, I kept digging through my gear for a lure that these picky fish would actually bite. Eventually, a chrome/orange kastmaster hooked into my biggest fish of the day, a tall 16" tiger trout.










Nice pattern on that one. The kastmaster didn't get any other bumps before it broke off, mid-cast.

Knowing that some decent fish lived in the lake, I reverted to the minnow, praying that something would take interest in it. After circling most of the lake, I started getting hits as long as I twitched the minnow every couple of seconds. Some of the hits were big surface splashes, but somehow, they weren't getting hooked. They would either spit it out within seconds or take off with it, into some logs and get it wrapped up.

After many frustrating "near misses", I finally got one to hold on and I was very surprised with what I reeled in.










Never before had I caught a brown trout so high in elevation. Previously, my highest brown was at around 8800ft and in a stream. This was a reservoir at nearly 9700ft. What's more, there's no record of browns being stocked in there that I can track down. Traveling upstream from the outflow creek would be very hard to believe, since it's very steep and seemingly impassable.

Perhaps some bucket biology had been practiced. Anyhow, it was neat to catch a brown from there. A couple more rainbows and tigers came to play and my time at that lake had come to a close.










More water awaited me on the other side of the mountain and getting there was as spectacular as can be expected in this lovely area. If only the days were longer&#8230;



















On the way to my next target, I passed a lake with some brookies and had to stop in for a visit with some of them.










After the diversion of pretty little brookies, it was time to go off trail for a short while and hunt down some cutthroat.



















The fishing was really slow and difficult with the thick weeds extending out toward the middle of the lake, but I was eventually rewarded for my patience with a couple of cutts.



















That last one seemed to have something funky going on with its skin. Little red dots speckled its sides and reminded me of the early stages of the fungus that I see on a lot of river browns in the fall.

Whatever the case, it was released to either heal or die on its own.

The day grew long and the remaining sunlight had blanketed the land with a golden glow. It was a sad realization, but my time had come to leave.

On the hike back to my car, I held out for one last bend in my rod at the brookie lake, then I was off.










While descending the mountain, I noticed that the lower elevation scrub oak had some deep colors that were really popping in the retreating light.


















It felt really nice to get back to that mountain and the waters that decorate its shoulders. The weather was perfect, the views were amazing, and I was able to catch 5 different species on another wonderful trip to the magical back country of our state.

My face wore a peaceful smile as I drove off into the sunset.










Happy Fishing, Humans.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Beautiful pictures LOAH !!

Neat report....thanks !!


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

.45 said:


> Beautiful pictures LOAH !!
> 
> Neat report....thanks !!


+1!!

Love the sunset and tree... 8)


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks for another great report.
You were in some beautiful country.
Good for you.


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

Those are some Beautiful fish it sounds like you had a great trip thanks for the report and awesome photos you have proven once again why you are LOAH. 8)


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## Dagwood (May 12, 2010)

Wow, great report, thanks for sharing!


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## Tigru (Oct 15, 2007)

Awesome pics. I love the trees and sunset. The Cutt just beofre the one with funky skin has incredible colors. Thanks for the report.


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## Briar Patch (Feb 1, 2010)

.45 said:


> Beautiful pictures LOAH !!
> 
> Neat report....thanks !!


+1 more


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Cool pictures. Looks like a fun day. 

Do you mind sharing what kind of setup you use? Rod/reel/line? How do you cast your spinner far enough into a lake to actually catch a fish?


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## stillhunterman (Feb 15, 2009)

Beautiful scenery and awesome pics! Glad you got out on the water. Summer is fading fast... Thanks for the great report!


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Dodger said:


> Cool pictures. Looks like a fun day.
> 
> Do you mind sharing what kind of setup you use? Rod/reel/line? How do you cast your spinner far enough into a lake to actually catch a fish?


Until I break them (probably due for that...it's been a couple of months :lol, I'm currently using a Cabela's something r' other rod ($40 range) and an Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 4lb Cabela's Pro line.

To cast a size 2 Blue Fox way out into the lake is easiest when fishing tiny lakes. :mrgreen:

My cast is strange, I'm sure. Instead of the overhand, wrist flipping type of cast, I usually just toss the lure underhand and sidearm (especially when wind is a factor - sidearm). Getting way out into the middle isn't usually too important to me, but when it's needed, swinging the rod sort of like a baseball bat seems to work. The overhand deal is also used, but really not that much.

On rivers, I hardly ever do anything but gentle underhand tosses.

Weird, I know.


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## nate1031 (Jul 2, 2008)

That tiger and those cutts were beautiful! (the other fish weren't bad either!)


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## billybob (Oct 27, 2008)

Best report I think I have ever read on this site. Thanks LOAH. Great read and great pics!!!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

LOAH... awesome report as usual. Glad you got out and bushwhacked your way into some new fish. All gorgeous pics as well. Is it sad that we actually expect that from your reports now?  You do great work buddy.


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## quakeycrazy (Sep 18, 2007)

Great adventures, thanks for posting pics!


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## Jigz (Sep 30, 2007)

Half the reason I still frequent this forum is to see the latest fishing adventure of LOAH. Thanks for all the posts. I dont have time for fishing anymore it seems, but seeing your posts makes it a little easier because you almost feel like you made the trip as well.


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## Jed (Feb 25, 2009)

Nice.  

***** bark beetles* :x


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