This report is from Memorial Day. We headed up to the Carbon River Valley to explore some hikes and alpine lakes. The road up to Coplay Lake is pretty rough but passable by most vehicles. After 6 miles of rough road we reached Coplay, a decent size alpine lake with room to camp on the shore. There was a group packing up from their weekend camp and when the guy saw me with my pole he came over and showed me pictures of the fish he caught and let me know that worms under a bobber worked the best. I didn't bring any bait, just a few lures, so I started with a Kastmaster and cast to where I saw fish rising. I rotated through several various spinners and spoons with no luck.

The sun was high in the sky so I didn't expect to have much success but after about 45 minutes an area near shore became shaded and fish started rising a lot so I targeted that area with my Rebel Teeny Wee Crawfish. After a few casts I get a hit, fish on! I can tell it's tiny but I'm on my ultra light rod so at least I can feel it. Boy, this was a greedy little brookie who wasn't much larger than the lure. I could tell there were much bigger fish in the lake and next time I'll bring my water bobber and flies as I think that will be the best method to get consistent hookups.

Once the snow clears at the higher elevations I'll venture up to Summit Lake, although I hear the fish are stunted in that lake. The other one nearby is Lily Lake which the guy I talked to when we got there said he and his buddies caught some big brook trout in that lake so I'm eager to check it out. This might be the smallest trout I've caught but I enjoyed it as much as the biggest. Love the cold alpine lakes and am looking forward to getting my line in more of them!

---