It took me almost two hours to drive back up to Fairbanks. I had lunch at the same place as yesterday, and sadly, was disappointed with their cheeseburger. However, their fries were awesome. I had another list of campgrounds near Fairbanks, and the first one that caught my eye was a “pond” that held stocked trout and grayling with a campground around the shore.
In California this pond would be named as a lake. Just the right size for a belly boat, and a nice, clean campground. I chose site 10 as it was near the middle of the lake so I could go in either direction. I tried fishing from the shore with no luck. I put my waders and boots on, moved out into the water, no luck. I inflated the belly boat and got out in the middle, alternating trolling with casting and stripping moving in a circle. The wind pushed me to one end of the lake, and I finally hooked up with a fish. It seemed a good size, hard fighter, I got the leader into the rod, and it got off before I could net it. I never saw the fish, so trout or grayling is anyone’s guess.
Not much later, I hooked and landed a trout, casting and stripping the line back towards me. I netted it, all 7 or 8 inches of it. Pretty fish but not real exciting. However, I was in a belly boat, in an appropriately sized lake, and caught a fish. No complaints.
I ended up landing two more trout, each about 10 or 11 inches, beautiful fish. Lost one at the boat and had another come off while stripping it in. Altogether, I hooked 6 fish, landing three. Not bad for 90 minutes on the water.
Internet reports state that this lake can become party central on the weekends. I’ll head into Fairbanks tomorrow, check out another lake or two, and come back here if this seems the best place, even with weekend partying nearby. All in all, time to relax, deal with blown out rivers and having to find lakes / campgrounds for the month, except for the Russian River.
Tight Lines!