Chambers Lake

With air temperatures near 100, it was a good excuse to head to higher ground for a day. While it looked fairly clear, there was still enough smoke haze in the air to make my eyes bleed, but at least it was 25 degrees cooler than home. Brought stiffer rods. Looked for a MH FAST action rod at Walmart and found a 7’ Penn Squadron III (an $85 rod) for $26! A good laker rod. I’m guessing not many people are looking for a fast action saltwater inshore rod at Walmart in Colorado! Still trying to figure out how to keep a big laker on the hook. Lost a few again. In spite of the stiff rod, I realized that my hook-setting leverage while sitting in a kayak is significantly less than someone standing on a boat deck. Will keep learning and experimenting. Landed one decent laker; not a giant, but its large pink butterfly-wing pectoral fins made it a particularly beautiful specimen!

#catchking After an amazing run at my home lake, I decided to take a break from it for about a week. Spent a couple days at Chambers lake, which sits above 9000ft. It is near the epicenter of the 2020 Cameron Peak fire (biggest wildfire in Colorado history), but remains a gem among the charred remains of the once-forested mountains. While they stock the lake with rainbows, I was targeting only lake trout. The naturally reproducing population of lakers seems to be severely waning, but it’s the closest kayakable lake that has a chance of a big laker. I’d be at Granby, Williams Fork, or Blue Mesa if they were closer. The water was about 30 feet low, as they apparently drained much of the lake for emergency dam repairs in the past week. The water was very cloudy, and the fish seemed spooked by the changes. The first day I fished about 10 hours and got about 10 bites. Of those, I got 3 hookups and none landed. The first one straightened my hook. I’m now testing various jig heads with stronger hooks. The second one popped off due to the drag being set too tight. I battled the third one for 5-10 minutes. After a few initial runs then making a lot of progress toward the surface, it went on a long blistering run. I got nervous that it would spool me and tightened the drag a little. Hook popped and it was gone. I think there’s a good chance that fish could have been my biggest ever. I’ve caught a lot of big trout and the weight of the pull felt like it could be a 20+ pound fish. So that was part of the impetus for going back another day. Again spent about 10 hours on the water. Again rustled up about 1 bite per hour. This time I hooked up about 5 of those and landed two. Unfortunately the two I landed were not the giant I was after, but were still some nice lakers. After more research I believe my rods were too flexy for this method. The lack of hookups and landed fish was due to poor hooksets. Lake trout have a more bony mouth than the others I’m used to, so it takes a hard hookset, which requires a stiffer rod when jigging deep. I have a couple rods with broken tips that I plan to shorten down into laker jigging rods for next time. Also I was fishing only artificials. Perhaps next time I would pick up some sucker meat for tipping my jigs which would probably increase my bites. So that was a huge time investment for a couple fish, but it was a great learning experience and picking up a couple of decent 22 inchers was a good confidence boost. Interestingly but not shockingly,these fish were skinny compared to those in my home lake. I’m guessing these were around 3 pounds each, and the 22-inch cutbows I’ve been catching lately on the home lake are in the chubby 6 pound range! Still, after losing a couple of likely huge ones, my mind is now set on catching and releasing a giant at some point in the future.

I did a lap of Chambers Lake in my kayak. I trolled behind me and didn't get a ton of action. I only caught 2, but the one was a very healthy size and did some acrobatics as soon as I hooked it.

Not bad for an hour. God blessed me with dinner, and another day of doing what I love. Hope everyone has a amazing weekend.

Thankful for the lord that saved me “several times” PB on fly rod so far. 23” and a 20” lake trout. This Memorial Day stop and give thanks and blessings to those that are no longer with us who give the ultimate sacrifice, to grant us the freedom to do the things we love.

I got blessed by God today. Great start to the weekend.

I made one lap of Chambers Lake this morning in my kayak, trolling behind me most of the way. Caught about 10 trout and several were very healthy size. A bit windy for my liking, but nice weather otherwise.