To my surprise, the temperature was 39 degrees and although raining the road passed Stumpy seemed clear. After making it to the Hell Hole turn off I had another choice, go straight and fish at Loon Lake or turn and continue to my original destination.

Being a Fish Sniffer forum reader, pulling a boat in the snow has been discussed to great length. It's here that I learned that the young guys go no matter what, and us old guys seem to be safer (more cautious or just older). But I continued on, and started down the hill towards the bridge that crosses the Rubicon River Ellicot's Crossing. After getting to the bridge and starting up the other side I was becoming bolder and started having thoughts of actually making it when I was stopped in my tracks. Not by bad road conditions but by a "herd" of deer. There were so many that I literally couldn't count them, but just sat there and watched as one by one they crossed and went down the hill. I felt like I was in Canada watching the herds of elk making the trek to their winter feeding grounds. The thought that deer season had ended also crossed my mind, since I went to Hell Hole fishing opening day of deer season and the campgrounds were full of hunters who couldn't find a deer to shoot. Go figure.

The sun started to lighten the morning sky so I could see that the road wouldn't be a problem as far as snow or ice blocking me, but did come across a down tree, and I had to stop and pull it off the road. No problem, I had brought my tow rope just in case anyway, and smiled to myself for thinking about being "ready" for anything.

The rest of the trip was easy, I made my turn off to Hell Hole and I was feeling pretty good about the day when I came across a big Black bear right by the Hell Hole campgrounds. I bet he didn't know the campgrounds were closed. I've lived in the mountains for 22 years and sighting a bear still gives me a trill. I wished I had my camera in the truck but knew I loaded it in the boat so no picture. Usually up here if you see a bear once in 5 years it's a lot, this year alone I've seen 4 while going fishing, don't know if the bear population is growing with leaps and bounds or if its because I'm going fishing more this year than ever. Go figure.

Well I made it. With great anticipation I rounded the corner where you can see the lake and was surprised to see that the lake was fully engulfed in fog. When you live in the valley its fog, when you live in the mountains its "low clouds", so the lake was engulfed in "low clouds".

As I pulled down the ramp I could see that the water had dropped below the cement so I'd be launching on the rocks. Had no problem and since no one was there I parked just off the ramp so as to have easy access to the truck when I got back. I guess I could tell you that, not only was no one there, I didn't pass a single car on the way there. I truly had the lake to myself.

As soon as I launched I put down my trolling motor so I could run silent, turned on my GPS so I could see where I was going, and turned on my tacky old depth finder to see if any fish were around the ramp. As soon as I was under way I was marking fish, hundreds of fish, my anticipation was at a peak "I was mickthefishhog". The night before I rigged two poles with large Plugs and Rapalas and let out top water lines while I put in my electric down riggers. Trolling around the corner to head towards the dam my fish finder was going crazy.

I got my lines in the riggers and set them to 25' where I was marking the most fish. No takers but I'm sure I knocked out a few with my 10lb. weights. After an hour or so I did manage to hook and release a small German Brown (around 14") on a small broken back rainbow colored Rapala.(3'). I decided to stick out a night crawler behind a dodger and caught 2 more GB's within the next hour.

Since I had a few fish I started down to where I like to catch Mack's (my secret spot) and followed the east shore trying to stay about 5' above the bottom. Bouncing off the bottom every once in a while I finally got a bite and grabbed my pole. At just about the same time my down rigger weight stuck on the bottom and spun me a180 like I had just put out an anchor. I put the boat in neutral and brought in a nice but small Mackinaw.

After landing the fish and clearing the deck (pulling in my other line) I was able to back off the stuck weight and retrieved it. (lucky me). The "low clouds" were lifting and the entire lake was glass.

I could see that it was going to be a beautiful day to take pictures and took quite a few scenic shots while trolling around in silence. I managed to catch another small Mack. But the day was a great success because of all the other things it entailed. We all like to catch fish or you wouldn't be reading these stories, but this day was so special. I didn't hook a big fish, I didn't catch a bunch of fish, but it was one of my most rewarding days ever on Hell Hole. On the way back I didn't pass another car or see another person till I crossed over the Stumpy Meadows dam. I did have a small problem getting my boat back on the trailer though, with the slanted ramp every time I pulled it out it kept swinging to one side and it wanted to rest on my fender. I pulled the boat in and out of the water 4 times, finally I had to get wet and lash the boat in the proper position over the trailer with my launching rope and managed to get it straight. Dropped my wet clothes on the ramp and changed to dry ones,(thank goodness no one was there to witness such a scary sight) and on the way out couldn't resist one last shot of the lake.

I played the music real loud on the way home with a smile on my face. My first winter trip was a great one, and I'm thinking I'll go back and do it again soon. Hopefully someone will join me, the only thing that could be better than this is to show someone else the beauty and serene surroundings of this spectacular high country lake. (And it would be nice to have help with getting the boat on the trailer too)... I'll share it with you because I can't help myself, after all what's the point of going on an adventure if I can't share it with my fellow fishermen...