Susanne had some work to do today and the thought of hanging outside in the smoke was not overappealling. So Laura, Frank, Hankie, Tukka, Sadie, and I all headed out to go fishing at a lake just west of Ennis. I guess Frank’s brother had caught a ton of fish there earlier in the summer and Laura really wanted to go try it out.
It took about an hour or so to get there, but as we climbed up the mountains, the smoke thinned out a bit. Whew. There was one other car in the parking lot when we pulled in. They had a big dog and the guy didn’t look all that friendly. We got out and I held Sadie by her leash, but Tuk and Hank ran over to the guy who proceeded to kick Hankie. Sheeesh. We managed to get out of there without further incident.
It was a short hike up to the lake. Not a big lake and pretty shallow, but a very nice place. There wasn’t much action on the water when we started. It also required some skill in casting because of all the sage brush on the back cast, but I managed to not snag anything or lose a fly. We fished for a while with little luck. There were a ton of bees flying around and Tuk got stung a couple times. They kept harassing me as well. I tried to shoo one away, but got it caught under my arm and it gave me a good solid wallop in the side. Damn! Luckily I am not allergic, but damn!
I moved down to a jut of rocks and started fishing there. I saw a couple swim by. Then BAM! I got one. A really nice cutthroat trout. It took awhile for us to get him in and get in position for a picture, so I was worried for the fish’s safety — hence the worried look on my face.
We fished for awhile longer but it was pretty slow. We packed it up and headed back to the cabin. The smoke was still pretty heavy. Dang. But based on all the maps and forecasts, there really wasn’t any other good place to go.
But how bad can it be hanging out in the beautiful mountains of Montana. And the dogs were happy and tired.
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