Friday July 9

Back to Silver Lake. It was too good last night. Floating in the tube for over 5 hours, I managed to catch many large rainbows 3 over 20 inches…… and one, the biggest rainbow trout of my life, taped out at a whopping 25 inches. It was insane. I’d troll this full sinking line and about half of my backing and dredge these monsters from the depths. One time I had so much line out that I needed binoculars to see the fish jumping on the other end of the line.

I also had an unusual encounter with a loon, the thing swam about 5 circles around me underwater, surfaced, made the call of the wild like you’d hear in the movies (you know the one), go back underwater, and circle 5 more times. Like, I could see the thing flapping it’s wings blasting around me. It was, well, kinda weird. It was a spectacular day of fishing. Huge trout, nice sunshine, snow capped giants all around…..and zero other people. Another trip highlight for sure.

Paid the all time trip high for gas, $3.95/gal, ouch, but only $4 for a shower....it’s been 6 days since my last.

I was pretty tired and decided to call it a day around 7pm, gourmet pasta with butter and cheese by the river and bed early.