Fishing for Beauty at Summit Lake

Hi Blog!

On Wednesday, May 29, 2019, our Maine friends, Rob and Debbie, joined us for Happy Hour. We had lots of fun comparing notes about places we’ve visited and hikes we’ve taken. After dinner, we decided to catch the evening hatch.

Ever since we arrived, we’ve been looking for a good time to put the kayaks in the water and try our hand at fishing for some wild rainbow trout. The wind is almost constant up here in the higher elevations. The quiet times on the lake are early morning and late evening. The only problem:  early morning is about 3:30 a.m. and late evening is around 10:30 p.m. We decided to push it a little and launched our kayaks around 7:30 p.m.

We decided to paddle into the wind toward the far end of the lake and then let the wind blow us back to the boat launch.

On the way up, Dave stopped to get a photo of what we thought was an old, uninhabited beaver lodge. Turned out the lodge may have been old, but it was still occupied. Mr. or Ms. Beaver didn’t like Dave getting so close to home. Said beaver swam full speed toward Dave, turned tail and wacked the water with a thundering slap, sending droplets of lake water toward Dave and his kayak.

After the beaver encounter, we were a little more careful when we approached the next beaver lodge. However, we passed by unchallenged.

Having reached the far end, we looked for fishy rises and began casting about. Kathy worked the southeast shoreline and Dave worked the northwest shoreline

As Dave passed a small peninsula jutting out into the lake, he met the beaver again. However, this encounter was less violent. The beaver just swam quietly by.

As it approached 9:00 p.m., the winds died down. The surface of the lake turned to glass.

We did see a few rises, but we didn’t try very hard to cast to them. We were more interested in watching the sunset.

We kept our kayaks as still as possible, not wanting to send a ripple across the water. The reflections in the water were almost perfect copies of the realities they copied.

Check out this photo. It’s hard to tell if its right side up or upside down. The light in the sky washed out the mountain, but the camera picked up a perfectly exposed image reflected in the lake water.

By 9:30 p.m., we were getting a little chilly. The fish showed no interest in our flies. While our creels returned empty, our hearts we're filled with the beauty and serenity of the Northern Rocky Mountains. Here’s our last look at Summit Lake at sunset.

Tomorrow, we hope to hike to Summit Peak. Stay tuned.