I've been in fishing-withdrawal since the season closed for Cascade Lake at the end of October. Finally, found a time when our schedule and the weather jived so we could get to Mountain Lake.

The day was sunny and no wind for the first hour. The notorious wind on Mountain Lake returned for the last two hours, but it was manageable at least. The air temp was 45 degrees F and the water temp varied from 37 to 33.1. There were three areas of the lake with ice sheen to 1/4" of ice. Several times we nosed into it for the heck of it and imagined what the big ice-breaking ships must hear in the arctic.

Three of us fished for 3.5 hours. We varied our offerings - from trolled worms, spoons, and traditional trout spinners. It was my magic Rapala minnow rap that produced our one fish for the day. He was a small 10" rainbow, but I was thrilled. Fish-On! He was returned to fight another day.

The hills and woods around the lake were just beautiful. We saw four bald eagles, a falcon, and several flocks of ducks. We also saw many runners and trail bicyclists. The runners were on island for the Rainshadow 50K run. (Normally, the lake would have been whisper quiet, but there was a lot of voices and activity.) The one time when it was quiet was when we stopped to heat and eat our lunch. The tinkling sound the ice made where the open edge of water met the ice sheet was neat.

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