spilunkr
07-19-2007, 06:21 PM
This week our son and his girl friend are visiting. But, yesterday was a day for relaxing and they decided to just spend the day chilling in old town Fort Collins; which meant that I got the chance to get some fishing in and to get away from the 90+ temperatures here in town. Well, I got a relatively early start as it was my intent to hike into Fern Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.
I got to the trail head parking area at 9:30 and got the last parking place. A few minutes later and I would have had to add another ½ mile walk to the next parking area. The trail to Fern Lake from the trail head is 4 miles one way with an elevation gain of 1,300’ on what is described as a moderately difficult trail. Fern Lake is about 10 acres in size with a maximum depth of 25’ and sits at an elevation of 9,500 feet. The lake itself is crystal clear.
The first 2 miles of the trail is relatively level and follows the upper Big Thompson River. It was difficult to keep walking past so much great looking water so I did stop at a couple of nice pools and got one nice 10” greenback.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3b72df6300000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Two miles up the trail at a place called “The Pool” the trail splits and leaves the Big Thompson which headed up Forest Canyon. The Pool is an impressive pool just above where Fern Creek joins the Big T. About 200 yards up the trail to Fern Lake from the Pool, the trail parallels Spruce Creek a small tributary to the Big T. Just to see what might be in Spruce Creek, I stopped to fish a couple pools and got my first brookie of the year.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3abd1e0400000026109AZM2bZu2ba
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3a0d1eb400000026109AZM2bZu2ba
After that the trail really started to gain elevation. I think almost ¾ of the elevation gain is in the last 1 ½ miles. Occasionally while walking up the trail I could hear Fern Creek in the canyon below. But, there is only one place where the trail meets Fern Creek and that is at Fern Falls a cascade that drops about 200’ in total.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3a2b1e9200000025109AZM2bZu2ba
Finally, at about 12:30 I got to Fern Lake which sits below Gabletop Mtn. and the Little Matterhorn. The air temperature was a pleasant 70 which is where it stayed all afternoon. Fern Lake is a popular day hike and there were also a number of people fishing. But, it definitely was not crowded. It also was not hard to find fish cruising in the crystal clear water.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3ee29f6900000026109AZM2bZu2ba
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3e3a9fb100000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Over the course of the next three hours there were always fish rising and most of the rises were within easy casting distance of shore negating the need for the wading gear I had brought. Mostly the fish appeared to be taking tiny specks (midges?) off the surface. Except for about 45 minutes when some callibaetis started dancing over the small flat at the lake outlet. During the callibaetis hatch I managed to get three greenbacks on a #14 callibaetis dry. Other than that most of my fish came on a #22 griffiths gnat and a couple took a #22 crème midge. It is probably the food source, but I thought the greenbacks in the lake were particularly well colored with a lot of red on the gill plates and belly.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3ece9f4500000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Around 2:45 the almost obligatory afternoon shower rolled in. It rained and hailed for about 15 minutes before the sun came back out. I fished another 1/2 hour until 3:30 before beginning the hike out.
The fishing was interesting. The idea is to pick out a cruising fish, determine where the fish is going and cast the fly several feet in front of it’s path. While that worked for some fish, most of them responded to the fly actually hitting the water and would immediately rush over to the fly as soon as it would hit. At that point they would either turn off the fly, which is what most did, or else immediately grab it. All told I wound up catching about 20 greenbacks all of which were between 10” and 13” in length. I saw a lot of smaller fish but none showed any interest in my flies.
Being all downhill the hike out went considerably faster than the hike in taking a bit less than 1 ½ hours to hike out. About ¼ mile from the trail head, there were a pair of grouse a few feet off the trail.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3ecb1e7000000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Fern Lake is one of four lakes in the headwaters of Spruce and Fern Creeks. They all contain fish and are located within a mile of each other. At some point it will be worth packing a tent in and spending the night in order to try them all.
Guy
I got to the trail head parking area at 9:30 and got the last parking place. A few minutes later and I would have had to add another ½ mile walk to the next parking area. The trail to Fern Lake from the trail head is 4 miles one way with an elevation gain of 1,300’ on what is described as a moderately difficult trail. Fern Lake is about 10 acres in size with a maximum depth of 25’ and sits at an elevation of 9,500 feet. The lake itself is crystal clear.
The first 2 miles of the trail is relatively level and follows the upper Big Thompson River. It was difficult to keep walking past so much great looking water so I did stop at a couple of nice pools and got one nice 10” greenback.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3b72df6300000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Two miles up the trail at a place called “The Pool” the trail splits and leaves the Big Thompson which headed up Forest Canyon. The Pool is an impressive pool just above where Fern Creek joins the Big T. About 200 yards up the trail to Fern Lake from the Pool, the trail parallels Spruce Creek a small tributary to the Big T. Just to see what might be in Spruce Creek, I stopped to fish a couple pools and got my first brookie of the year.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3abd1e0400000026109AZM2bZu2ba
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3a0d1eb400000026109AZM2bZu2ba
After that the trail really started to gain elevation. I think almost ¾ of the elevation gain is in the last 1 ½ miles. Occasionally while walking up the trail I could hear Fern Creek in the canyon below. But, there is only one place where the trail meets Fern Creek and that is at Fern Falls a cascade that drops about 200’ in total.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3a2b1e9200000025109AZM2bZu2ba
Finally, at about 12:30 I got to Fern Lake which sits below Gabletop Mtn. and the Little Matterhorn. The air temperature was a pleasant 70 which is where it stayed all afternoon. Fern Lake is a popular day hike and there were also a number of people fishing. But, it definitely was not crowded. It also was not hard to find fish cruising in the crystal clear water.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3ee29f6900000026109AZM2bZu2ba
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3e3a9fb100000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Over the course of the next three hours there were always fish rising and most of the rises were within easy casting distance of shore negating the need for the wading gear I had brought. Mostly the fish appeared to be taking tiny specks (midges?) off the surface. Except for about 45 minutes when some callibaetis started dancing over the small flat at the lake outlet. During the callibaetis hatch I managed to get three greenbacks on a #14 callibaetis dry. Other than that most of my fish came on a #22 griffiths gnat and a couple took a #22 crème midge. It is probably the food source, but I thought the greenbacks in the lake were particularly well colored with a lot of red on the gill plates and belly.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3ece9f4500000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Around 2:45 the almost obligatory afternoon shower rolled in. It rained and hailed for about 15 minutes before the sun came back out. I fished another 1/2 hour until 3:30 before beginning the hike out.
The fishing was interesting. The idea is to pick out a cruising fish, determine where the fish is going and cast the fly several feet in front of it’s path. While that worked for some fish, most of them responded to the fly actually hitting the water and would immediately rush over to the fly as soon as it would hit. At that point they would either turn off the fly, which is what most did, or else immediately grab it. All told I wound up catching about 20 greenbacks all of which were between 10” and 13” in length. I saw a lot of smaller fish but none showed any interest in my flies.
Being all downhill the hike out went considerably faster than the hike in taking a bit less than 1 ½ hours to hike out. About ¼ mile from the trail head, there were a pair of grouse a few feet off the trail.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d938b3127cce87fd3ecb1e7000000026109AZM2bZu2ba
Fern Lake is one of four lakes in the headwaters of Spruce and Fern Creeks. They all contain fish and are located within a mile of each other. At some point it will be worth packing a tent in and spending the night in order to try them all.
Guy