Skunked at Clayton Lake

The plan was simple.

Put wife and dog into the truck. Drive to Clayton Lake. Enjoy a great hike on a beautiful fall day.

Catch a bunch of nice trout to hopefully silence the doomsday doubters of the South Fork Westslope Cutthroat Restoration Project.

Let’s see how we did…

Wife and dog in truck. Check.

Drive to Clayton Lake. Check.

Enjoy a great hike. Check.

Catch a bunch of trout.

Catch a bunch of trout.

Catch a bunch of trout.

All right already! So I got skunked!

The water level was down enough to allow easy walking on the shoreline. And the wind really didn’t impair fly casting much.

But I never saw a fish rise, swim by, or tug on my line. Zilch.

As a joke I emailed Fish Wildlife and Parks and asked if they’d forgotten to restock Clayton Lake after it was “Rotenoned” in 2009.

(I had found a website that erroneously reported that Clayton Lake was scheduled for chemical treatment in 2014. Thank you, Al Gore.)

Matt Boyer, FWP Region One Science Program Supervisor, replied with a well-earned zinger, “Jerry, I can’t believe you didn’t catch any fish!”

According to Boyer, who headed the South Fork rehab project, Clayton Lake was restocked in 2010 with westslope cutthroat fry, 1-year fish (5-6 inches), and 2-year fish (11-12 inches). Then supplemented with fry every year since 2010.

“We’ve monitored the size and survival of trout five times since we treated Clayton Lake,” said Boyer. “The larger fish are over 16 inches now and I’ve heard from anglers that fishing has been pretty good.”

If you can’t make it up to Clayton Lake this fall, don’t worry. I’m pretty sure the lake will still be there next summer.