My buddy Esteban and I decided we wanted to do a backpack trip and since I love fly fishing, I found us a place that we could hike to and also get some fly fishing in. I chose Native Lake which is near Leadville, Colorado. It has an elevation of 11,293 feet and is home to brook trout and greenback cutthroat trout. This lake was very beautiful, but too shallow along the edges to be able to catch any fish. We saw a couple jumping in the middle, but without a canoe or belly boat there was no way to cast to them. I only caught two fish, one in the creek entering the lake and one in the creek leaving the lake. Here are some pictures from the trip.
Trailhead.
Little stream flowing down the mountain.
Esteban with Mount Massive in the background.
Me with Mount Massive in the background.
Native Lake from above. The most difficult part of the hike was from the trailhead to this point. From here to the lake was all downhill and much easier.
Here’s the part where I show you a bunch of different pictures of the lake. Make sure to check out the lake at sunset. Very pretty.
Our beer cooler.
Wait, where are the fish?
Here is the brook trout I caught in the creek that leads into the lake. The little guy squirted out of my hands as Esteban took the shot.
There is another lake, Rainbow Lake, we decided to hike up to and see if we could catch something.
Looking back away from Rainbow Lake.
Esteban found some snow. Thankfully we didn’t run into any polar bears.
I’m not sure why I am smiling because it was quite windy up there and I wasn’t able to cast out far enough to reach any fish.
I had a great time roughing it high up in the mountains. I would have loved to hook up with more fish but it was still a nice little adventure.
Catch ya later, Native Lake.
Oh, you might be wondering about the other fish I caught. He was a nice little greenback cutthroat trout. I didn’t get any pictures of him, but Esteban got it on video and I haven’t had a chance to upload yet. I’ll post the video once I get it ready. Stay fly.