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After camping a nice night on Rachel Lake, we made the surprisingly easy mile hike up to Rampart Ridge to fish its lakes. These fish were just as aggressive at the fish at Rachel, but a times a little bit spooky. I expected small, stunted alpine fish. What I received was the complete opposite. No joke, there are some big Cutthroats on those lakes!!
I lost my biggest fish, quite possibly, in the running for my biggest trout of the year, but to see it take my foam bee pattern was just awesome. For some reason, every rise by these trout was violent and splashy. A far cry from the subdued, aristocrat trout of Rocky Ford Creek. The water was so absolutely clear that you could see the fish in transit, moving on their particular "beat." The large trout was pulled out of the larger lake. But the most special experience came from the narrow, deep, and gin clear lake above the largest one. Perched upon a cliff above these fish, I watched them come from the bottom of the lake and move a good 25 feet strait up, casually, and take my ant patterns. They were having none of the foam bees!
My most special moment was at the end of the day. I had seen continuously rising in the same spots and noted their locations. On our way out, I cautiously crept up behind a bluff and made a blind cast to the general area where I had seen a constant riser. As soon as the ant pattern hit the water foot long cutthroat came up and nailed it! I began to tighten the line and he shot off like a cannon for the middle of the lake, almost taking me into my backing on several runs. It took awhile to get the fish in, but I had quite a surprise to see what I caught. My first Westslope Cutthroat. It had a beautiful rosy "chest" and its unique spotting on the tail. I revived the fish and it shot forward 8 feet and came to a standstill resting at the bottom of the lake. I tossed a rock in its direction and the beautiful fish didn't budge. I'm thinking, "Sh*t! I killed it!" Knowing that I must have overplayed the lively fish to exhaustion and then participated in a futile effort of releasing a dead fish, I took off my shoes and socks and waded in after the thing (this section of the lake was actually pretty shallow) Two steps in the fish's direction and it shot off to some other destination in the lake. I still wonder if the poor thing made it or not. 9/23/01 Tyler Laurenti
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