Nice Day At Goose Lake

The wind here has been 20+ mph for the past week or so, putting a real damper on kayak fishing. Today, the wind died down, the sun was out and it was a beautiful summer day, so we headed up to Goose Lake in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Got up real early, which turned out to be a good call and got to the lake just before sunrise.

Sunrise Goose Lake 7-20-10

The lake level has dropped a couple feet since the last time we were here in late June, reducing the size of the lake quite a bit. The fish have moved to the deeper parts of the lake as the water gets warmer and shallower. Before sunrise, the trout were surfacing in large groups. Casting into the schools of surfacing fish yielded some nice browns and cutthroat trout.

Early AM Brown 7-20-10

As the sun came up, the trout stopped coming to the surface and the bite died off. Switching from casting to trolling got a few more fish, but the warmer it got, the slower the bite. Paddling the kayak on this mountain lake when it’s dead glass, warm and sunny is something that doesn’t happen that often. Not to mention that the warm weather gets the bald eagles and ospreys flying around early and often. Always cool to see a big bald eagle skimming the water for fish. When you get a chance to get close to eagles, it is amazing how big these birds are.

Awesome Day 7-20-10

The weather keeps getting warmer, the snow on Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood is melting quickly so the high country lake fishing may be over soon. Time to look for walleye and bass and wait for the salmon and steelhead to start running up the Columbia. Or head to the ocean for a couple days.

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