Shifty and I went to fish some of the pristine waters of the Uinta Mountains on Thursday. We left the valley at 5 am and made our way to Kamas where Mirror Lake Highway begins. We turned onto Mirror Lake highway and made our way to the trailhead at Spring Canyon. The lake we were targeting is only 6 miles from the trailhead. The road however makes it a two-hour trip. Plus, I missed the turnoff the first time through and that added an hour to our trail ride. Shifty was okay with it, we took the Jeep so he could experience a Jeep ride once again. His father owned a Willy’s Jeep back in the day and he wanted to get a ride in before we trade it off this spring. I finally found the right turn and we made it to the lake later than anticipated. The lake was as crystal clear as we hoped it would be.
We hiked around the far side of the lake to get away from the campers and started fishing the deeper waters. I tossed out a green jig and on the second cast I got my first Brook trout of the day. Shifty was still setting up and then figured out he was too shallow and hiked past me to another point. I continued to fish the same spot for a while. The green jig turned off and became a one hit wonder for me. I changed to Kastmasters and worked a couple color combinations and then found the hot ticket. A nickel/orange combo and caught a couple more along the far bank. About 11 am the fish turned off. I made my way around the lake to where Shifty had been throwing everything and the kitchen sink. He was wading into the lake trying to get farther distance from the bank on his casts. By the time I made it over there he had resorted to powerbait, about ten minutes later he caught his first fish.
We stayed on the lake for another half hour before packing it in and hitting the road for the next lake. I had planned on hitting three or four lakes in the day but my extra excursion in the morning took us out of that possibility. We traveled up to Trial Lake and then back down to Murdock basin trailhead, where we turned off to our next destination. It has been years since I had been up there and the road has changed significantly for the worse. It took us from trailhead to the lake almost two hours. Finally making it to our destination we broke out lunch and talked about the morning half of the adventure. While eating the clouds closed in and it became very dark. Sprinkles began and then the Hail came in. Still we made our way to the lake and hid under a tree waiting out the Uinta storm. Late summer in the Uinta’s it never fails to storm in the afternoon. Some come and go quickly others linger for hours. This one decided to linger.
We went back to the Jeep to dry off a little and wait it out a little longer. Finally, it let up a little and we took advantage of the break and made fast time to the shore and started casting. However, the storm had other plans for us and came back with vengeance. Making only a dozen or so casts we were turned back. Hail, rain turning to snow, yes snow. We got back to the Jeep and called it a day. What an adventure though, and we caught a couple fish. Great trail ride in the Jeep it will be missed, but with only getting to take it out once or twice a year someone will love having it and hopefully use it for what it is made for. Fishing was slow but the fish were beautifully colored.
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