Recon - Lake of the Woods & Webber Falls Part II

Took the family out for a picnic at beautiful Lake of the Woods. What a difference from my last trip on June 19th only 10 weeks earlier. The catching isn't the best, but the fishing is awesome due to the beauty and serenity of the area. There are 7 first-come first-serve camping/picnic sites and a friendly and knowledgeable campground host that stays in a trailer at the lake most of the season. This is a great place for families and kids.

My kids found thousands of Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs which they eagerly collected.

They were a bit bummed when I made them turn them loose. These frogs along with an abundance of terrestrials (including thousands of dragon flies) provide ample food for the salmonids of this natural, spring-fed alpine gem, namely chubby bows, brookies and a handful of browns. Check out this massive Sphinx Moth Caterpillar, probably about ready to pupate. It's the size of my ring finger...this is like a ribeye for trout! Apparently there is a deal in the works with the California DFG to make this a catch and release lake next year, but its not a sure thing yet. That would be great news, it could be a great little fishery if it were managed better. While we were in the area, we took a short hike down to Webber Falls on the Little Truckee.

Check out this video, the first part is from the first week of September when the flows are near their lowest; the second half of the video is when the falls were running at their peak flows in mid June just 10 weeks earlier....what a difference.

Recon - Lake of the Woods & Webber Falls Part I

Yesterday, I had a brilliant idea to be the first one to fish Lake of the Woods at ice-out. Independence Lake is ice free I've been told and I heard that guys have been fishing Webber Lake since last weekend, so i figured it was worth a shot. You can drive a couple hundred yards or so from the dirt road turn off, then its solid snow for the next two miles. We packed in tubes with spirits high since there were no tracks ahead of us. This is what we saw. A couple weeks too early. Despite a little open water, no fish were cruising. Being in the area, we hiked down to Webber falls, holy $#@%! Its blown out and amazing to see.