Another 2 weeks in Paradise...
 

Just finished another 2 weeks in God's country at Silver Lake...:cheers1:
The trip started off Cold and WINDY with Lots of water in the lake...The lake level was pretty maxed out and almost touching the asphalt...in some spots it was seeping up on the other side of the road through the water table...:eek:
Did I say it was COLD AND WINDY...LOL...!!!
The winds were gusting so High that I had to add extra ropes to each corner of the tent and popup and a few center pole supports too...:notworthy:
Mother Nature was really showing her strength...the lake was totally unfishable!

Flowers
 

All this water. and runoff has made for a wonderful natural floral bouquet...:luxhello:
That's a Very Full Grant Lake in the background...

Iris...
 

The Iris are in full bloom around the campsite...

clouds...
 

The windstorm created some beautiful cloud formations...

Birds...
 

Lots of Red breasted Robins, Yellow Tanagers, lots of arguments among the nesting Black Birds, beautiful little Chikadees, and Blue Jays and a few woodpeckers too...:notworthy:

Bald Eagle...
 

The Bald Eagle seems to be the new resident since I only saw the Osprey once this trip...

more flowers
 

Lupin...

Convict...
 

We fished Convict lake one morning for another good batch of trout across the lake at the many streams flowing into the lake...nothing big this time but lots of fun as usual...
All my fish were on the 1/32 Hookups but a group of guys were wailing on em with night crawlers...:reel:

Deer...
 

The many Deer are so friendly in the campground...

mo deer...
 

This spotted little one is only a couple of weeks old...;)

Crawdads...
 

The water was 46 degrees at the beginning of the trip and warmed to 52 on the surface by the end of the trip so the crawdad crawl still hasn't taken off yet...but we did get enough big ones for a good ole Louisiana style Boil...

boil...
 

Crawfish boil...with artichokes..:cheers1:

Horsetail Falls...
 

I lived up here 42 years ago and I've been coming up here fo 50 years...and I've never seen Horsetail Falls go this ballistic...this next week is forecast to be in the 80's...the runoff from the snow melt should be incredible...:eek:

another angle
 

here's another angle on the falls...LOL...it came out sideways...:rolleyes:

Reflection of Carson Peak...
 

reflection of Carson Peak...

Fishing...
 

Fishing was Good...not Great...but Good...:notworthy:
As usual I fished the Hookup Baits for 80% of the time in the kayaks...we had days with 4 to 20+ fish/day and only a couple of really slow days...at the end of the trip the water calmed down to really beautiful conditions each evening...so we ate dinner early so we could out for the evening glass off:notworthy:

I also used the lead core line setup and the down rigger for some mid day trolling at 25' to 35'. The Tasmanian devil produced 4 beautiful Browns one day with two of em at 16"...:reel:...the split back Rapalla or Thomas Boyant didn't even get hit for me this trip...:confused:

The 1/32 Black Gold with the crawdad sauce was the go-to for me for most of the fish...although I used the yellow and white a few times on the dead stick...we ended up the trip using the 1/16 Chub color for the last few days of the trip and it really paid off... the last fish of the trip was this 5.8 pound beauty...probably a "holdover" with it's perfect fins and tail...

Beautiful pics!

Fucking amazing. I’m thinking that I might do a quick turnaround just to see the waterfalls.

Love that place.

What a spread
 

👍🏾

Awesome report and photos. At least the weird weather is keeping the summer crowds down. I'm hoping to get up there in the fall. Thanks for the tackle notes. The Hookup baits work great for me in the harbors so now I'm gonna have to get some little ones for trout!

I wish I could have made the trip up there and fished with you. Beautiful pics with some great catches. I've had luck with the HUBs in the Sierras but it's not as consistent as you are having. I'll have to pick your brain the next time I see you.

All great pics. Nice fishing and solid weather. I am sure it was enjoyable. Thanks for sharing!

This one looks like dinner
 

Just curious how you cooked it up....my old stomping grounds just received 3500lbs wright's from thatcher Idaho.

Hey Jim, it was great talking to you on Monday at LJ, Roger (aka. tootall). I may have to try Silver Lake out, great pictures.

Cookin'...
 

Hey Mitchel...
"Just curious how you cooked it up"...
My favorite way to cook the big ones is to scale the fish then steak it up and marinade in Traders Island Soyaki...then just put em on the grill and BBQ em.
It's a little more work but de-boning the trout is a really different way to serve em (there are a few demo videos on youtube)...then saute with an almond topping... or egg and cornmeal coat em then fry in pnut oil:cheers1:
Hope that helps...

Tootall...sorry that wasn't me you talked to at LJ...maybe my doppelg?nger...

Thanks Jim ....
 

I definitely know the corn 🌽 meal way. I like the small one's that way. Skin taste good crispy. Marinating the big one on the grill sounds excellent, don't think I ever had soyaki .I'll have to stop in trader Joe's next time I go by.

Trout Almondine....
 

Sierra style...:elefant: