Colorado Fisherman Forum banner

packin it in to lily lake

2K views 29 replies 13 participants last post by  roadkill 
#1 ·
well hooked up with jw trapper and thru together a kinda spur of the moment pack trip and seen some pics from oats about this lake and had checked it out on the maps and it looked like about 3 mi in and 1500 ft up or so we met in westcliffe and loaded up it was a good 2 hours drive to the trail head but most of that was jeep trail we got back in on the jeep trail a bit and was crossing some privte land and came across some sheep


these were the smart ones as they are in season but the hunters were farther up
we got a late start tue so after parking and heding out we only made it part way before it got dark and we thru our bags down for some sleep it wa safully cold and some clouds rolled in during the night but didnt rain just a heavy frost we had a camp visitor for breakfast
[img]http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/8937/imag00030df.jpg
note** this and all of my picks are with NO zoom JW got some pics with his camera w/zoom look for his post

if i had an archery tag i could have filled it from my bag... lol not sure i would have enjoyed packing it out lol 
after breakfast over an open fire we finished the trip to the lake at 12,400' we tanked up on water and broke out the poles we each headed round the lake in a different direction i noticed we jw got to the far side he started working his way up to a second higher lake we had been turned on to s i doubled back to my pack and grabed my vest and the rest of my tackel and head up there also by the time i crested the hill to the upper lake he was just packing it in he said he had seen a batch but had only hooked 1 briefly so i went up and made a few tosses and hooked into a nice cutt couple pounds if it was an ounce and i sat back and figured even if this was the only fish the hick was worth it i cleaned it real quick and droped it in my vest for dinner then made a few more casts and hooked another this one was big i didnt have my camera with me left it in my pack so i headed back down to set up camp as it looked like some weather coming hers the big un from the upper lake

it wouldnt even fit in the fish pocket on the back of my vest


notice it goes from the base of the reel to the first guide im going to measure it in the morning

well we got camp up just in time for the afternoon snow/hail storm this is the view of the lake/mountain during a lull in the storm from my tent, man can that wind blow up there


the sky cleared before dark but with the snow/hail on the ground i just called it an early night. i woke to clear sky and a smooth lake boiled some water for cocco hers a quick photomerge


JW's tent is off the pick in the upper right he said he set up way over there to find a flat spot but i think he just wanted to not have to listen to me snore...lol
after some cocco and granola bars i headed down to the lake wasnt having any luck and wasnt up for another trip to the upper lake as we planned on hicking out in the afternoon i had tried flies but wasnt getting the distance i felt and couldnt cast a fly for squat with my 4 1/2' ultra light so i kept dreging with that silver/crome genaric spoon that worked up top the day before and i was just thinking bout switching to a polish fly and buble and was seeing if the retrieve would keep it out of the rocks when a nice cutt hit




so i put my spin reel on my fly rod and tied on a fly that was similar in size and color to the shrip that was in the belly of yesterdays fish and then a 6' tag of line and the spoon (my polish fly and bubble). chucked that way out and hadnt worked it back far and got hit by another cut ended up breaking off the spoon (was ready to wade in after the fish but the spoon stayed in the rocks and i got to land the fish with out going swiming) but the cut ate the fly i took his pic but seems my finger got in the way something bout fighting good sized cuts on 2# test with one hand and trying to take pics with the other while balancing on loose rock. after releasing that one moved down the beach a bit and hooked into another second bigest of the trip

i think jw got some pics of my 2 big fish we'll see how they turn out

my next cast i budted off the small nymph and then tried some misiss and a wolly bugger with no luck JW tried a similar nymph but wasnt getting the distance with his spin rod and heavyer line. by this time it was time to pack and head out

while it took 5 hours to hike in we made it out in like 2 hours of hikeing gives ya an idea of the steepnes of the hike also got checked twice by dow and talked with a third officer on the way in seems they were looking for a dead sheep they were pretty cool it was just wierd getting checked so far back in all in all i had a blast and just need to build my self up so i can pack in a float tube!
 
See less See more
8
#3 ·
I agree with Jay Great Report... I saw snow on pikes peak and was like wow not already!! It got cold when I was up above 12,000 ft so I feel for you there.. I hadnt packed right for my trip. Those are some nice looking cuts. I may have to hit a high lake this weekend again, if I can con the girl into it.
 
#4 ·
i was in a minus 10 degree bag so it wasnt to bad but im sure it was single digits there was ice in some of the shallows and this morning we were still clearing ice from the guide till after 11ish and that was in full sun!
 
#5 ·
roadkill said:
i was in a minus 10 degree bag so it wasnt to bad but im sure it was single digits there was ice in some of the shallows and this morning we were still clearing ice from the guide till after 11ish and that was in full sun!
Heheh Im mod your post and delete it so the girl doesnt see it... if she does then I definately wont be able to talk her into the trip.
 
#6 ·
man i cant stop chuckeling you might be going solo lol
 
#9 ·
mustang, the lily lake i went to is just north of blanca peak in the sangres well south of west cliff almost down to hwy 160
 
#17 ·
i just measured the rod form this pic

and it's 20 inches
 
#19 ·
fishinguitars said:
thats a healthy fish what do you estimate his wieght
im thinking it was pushing 5 lb even after being gutted i feels close to a five pound chub of hamberger it was FAT in the pic you can see how deep the belly is but it hard to see how fat it is my best trout ever and on 2# test at that!

are there tables for converting legnth and girth to wieght for trout like they have for bass?
 
#22 ·


Okay I finaly got it fixed.  Here are a few of the pictures that I took.   When I got home I had around 130 pictures to download from the trip.  I didn't do as well, the fish just did not like what I had to offer them I guess.  So I roamed around and took lots of pictures of the area.  Before we left I did some searching on the net about the lake and found some info on it.  I found some stuff on Big Foot being sighted along the trail and some info on a plane crash in the area.  I knew this was going to be a fun trip.  

Here is roadkills lunker


This is a view of the lake from above as I hiked in to the upper lake to check things out.


These are just a few of the pictures of the lake Thursday morning.




If you look close enough you can see roadkill in this pic.  


This is the picture of the upper lake where the lunker was caught.  


Part of an airplane?


This is part of a drill that I found just outside of an old mine not far from the lake.


This is the drill head and the drill.  


Here is a Pitka.


Just a little snow on the ground.


All and all I had a great time.  I have been on vacation for 2 weeks and most of it was spent in a sleeping bag on the mountain.  After hiking up to Bushnell lakes last week I just had to do another pack trip before I had to go back to work.  I froze my butt off Thursday morning but it was well worth it.  
 
#24 ·
jwtrapper said:
If you look close enough you can see roadkill in this pic.
dam no more hiding for me you all know what i look like now....lol
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top