Rose and I had been wanting to go to a place called Crescent Lake for a while and now that fishing opened up there, and we had the time together, we decided to go. We drove south about an hour and a half and arrived at the trailhead. It was cloudy, foggy, and raining but we were determined to make it happen and explore a new place. We had a three mile hike ahead of us and a steep one at that.
We finally reached the saddle that took us into the valley that held Carter and Crescent Lakes. We popped out of the trees and thick brush and were amazed with the sheer beauty of the alpine landscape. We had a hard time getting down to the lake with all the thick alder brush but we made it. We began getting geared up and ready to try our hand at Grayling fishing. I'd heard and read about big grayling in this lake and was eager to catch one. We tried some wooly buggers at first but they weren't biting and we weren't seeing any fish rise or any bugs on the surface. After a short while I started seeing some fish rise. Then I saw a big one porpoise out of the water with his big fin showing and I knew then that there were indeed some big Grayling in this lake. 
I switched Rose and I up to some small dries and Rose had a bite almost immediately but didn't quite get him. I was fishing nearby and hadn't seen anything rise near me. I glanced over at Rose and saw a huge black fish swimming to my right. I lifted my line and set my little black gnat out in front of him. He immediately turn towards it. I readied myself to set the hook and he slowly acsended from the bottom and slurped up the gnat. When I went to net him he barely fit in the net! I was ecstatic over my first grayling.
Rose hadn't had any luck and her feet were getting cold and numb so I stopped fishing at climbed the only tree out there and was trying to spot a fish for her. The wind came up and made spotting difficult. I came down and we moved down the shore line and found a cool little spot to build a fire and eat some lunch. There was a mountain stream that came gushing down and poured into the lake and a gravel beach. Finding dry fire wood, well firewood in general was tough as there weren't many trees. I went fishing again and saw some Grayling rising close to the bank and went back and got Rose. She came back with me and fished for a little while and then all the sudden nailed one. She brought that fish in and it took a little while, he was a real fighter. I netted him and we took some pictures and decided to take one home for dinner.
She headed back to the fire feeling pretty good about getting such a nice fish. gave it one last shot and caught one more and called it a day. We packed up and began our trek back to the car. On our way out we saw a bunch of sheep up on the mountain. I dug out my binoculars and saw that there was a herd of sheep and a bigger herd of mountain goats all together, it was kinda cool to see but they were too far to take any pictures.
We had an awesome day and even though it was rainy and not too warm, it was fantastic.
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