After a little fishing fun in Day one, and much more late night fun by the fire, Koby and I were determined to make an impact and take a whole bunch of trout out of Pinewood Reservoir.
I must say, I absolutely love Pinewood.
I've been going to the lake for at least 15 years, visiting it almost annually as my Dad used to take my brother and I up north from Denver in our childhood to camp, fish and enjoy the majestic Rocky Mountains.
Why I love Pinewood is easy to explain.
Firstly, it's a great lake to fish. Even when I was young and fishing with my Dad, who had limited fishing experience, we would always pull some trout out and eat well.
Next, there are a good amount of camping sites, and if you're lucky, you get one in the Windy Pines area, where you have a bit of space between you and your closest neighbor.
Another cool aspect is the fact that there are tiger muskie, and lots of them, in the lake.
We went out this late morning in search of trout though, and we weren't disappointed.
After a long wait for breakfast, we broke camp at around 11 a.m. and went down to the cove pictured above.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, around us was catching fish and I wanted in on the fun.
I started with some lures; a rooster tail, a Kastmaster and others, to no avail.
Still, even the three year old kids just 20 yards to our right were catching fish, so something had to change.
I overheard them talking about using worms, so I switched up to worms with a bobber--nothing.
Another group said they were using balls o' fire, so I tried that, but this time without a bobber.
It turns out, everyone else was fishing the bottom, and as soon as we did too, we caught fish.
It was so easy; a couple of small weights, a small to medium snell hook and even as little as one fire ball worked, and almost immediately.
Within 45 minutes Koby and I caught our limit, and as my brother came in the middle of the action, we took in nine trout in all since we could use his license as well and the limit is four trout per person. (I'll upload a pick of all the fish as soon as I get one from Koby.) They were all 8-11" and either of the rainbow or brown trout varieties.
We went back up to camp and grilled the biggest three fish for lunch and they went quickly.
After Koby left due to a softball game that night, Alex and I went back out for more fish and fun. I didn't have more luck at the same spot and decided we should hit the inlet for a little more fishing before sunset.
I tried lures, nothing. Then balls o' fire again and caught a 10" carp. Since it was hooked well in its lip, I left it on the line and re-casted in hopes of catching a muskie.
On the third cast, the carp either got caught under a huge rock or was swallowed by a muskie as I reeled and reeled but came up with nothing but a whistling drag. After a few minutes, the line mysteriously snapped.
We hiked back to camp as the sun set and called it a night.
What a great day of fishing, with a ton of sun and wind, but fun nonetheless.
Read about our somewhat bad luck in day one at Pinewood here.
