This is a story that I wrote some time ago and stored it in my files of stories to someday be published. My wife and I have just returned from yet another great visit to Lassen Volcanic National Park and the subject of this story. I hope you enjoy it.

 

My Love Affair with a Lake

By George Kelly

  Like most teenagers I was fair game for falling in love, but this is the story of a       love affair with a lake, in Lassen Volcanic National Park, that has lasted for sixty seven years.

  World War II had ended the previous year and with it the need to ration gasoline. Because of this, my parents felt that we could at long last take a vacation that had been put off during the war years. My mother wanted to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park some 145 miles from our farm in the Sacramento Valley town of Williams. She was a teen aged girl, living in Redding, during the time Mt. Lassen was erupting and as the eruptions had ended in 1921 she wanted to see what it now looked like up close.

  We loaded our 1936 Buick with everything needed for the trip and after filling the gas tank, at a staggering 18 cents per gallon, my father, mother, sister and I piled in and off we went. We entered the park at the west entrance and the first thing we saw was Manzanita Lake, a beautiful gem of approximately 80 acres, with Lassen Peak reflected on its clear blue surface. It was a sight I have never forgotten.  It supposedly held many trout and that was what I was here for.      

  Tent camping was available at the lake and there also was a company that offered two different kinds of lodging. One was a housekeeping cabin that consisted of two bedrooms, a bath and a small kitchen. The other was much more rudimentary with just a planked wooden floor and frame over which a tent was tied down. It had a single bed with the necessary bedding. If you stayed in one of these the cost was $2.00 per night but you had to carry in your water, cook over an outside wood fire and use the public restrooms. My parents chose the first one although they thought the cost of $6.00 per night was a little high. 

  After helping my parents get settled in I headed for the lake to see where all these trout were supposed to be. It was approaching dusk as I neared it and to my surprise it looked as though the surface was being pelted by a cloud burst. There were so many fish gorging on an evening hatch of aquatic insects that I could hardly believe what I was seeing. As I stood there, with my mouth open, I could hardly wait for tomorrow so I could start catching these fish. Was I ever in for a      huge disappointment!

  On my way back to our cabin I talked with a Ranger who said that the lake had recently been stocked with 5000 Loch Leven Trout. This was a species that were originally imported from Scotland. I later learned that these are what we now call Brown Trout and are considered the most difficult, of all trout, to catch. I was soon to learn how true this was.   

  My parents had scheduled the first part of each day for all of us to visit the many spectacular sights that Lassen Park has to offer including sparkling clear streams, beautiful blue lakes, brilliantly green meadows, colorful wild flowers, great hiking trails, huge rock slides, the hydrothermal area called Bumpass Hell, stands of old growth timber and areas that were completely flattened during the eruptions. I can say that I truly enjoyed seeing all these sights but my mind was on the fish that I knew I would soon be catching.  

  Up to this point my entire fishing experience had been for catfish, carp and an occasional bass that were found in the irrigation canals near our farm.  My tackle consisted of an old solid steel rod, a $3.00 reel filled with white Dacron line to which I had attached a big hook and a weight large enough to allow me to make a sloppy cast. I also had a can of night crawlers I had dug from my mothers’ garden. These had served me well in the canals near our home so I knew I would soon be laying waste to the trout in the lake.       

  The scene at the lake was the same as the night before with trout rising to the surface everywhere. I knew that a limit, of five trout, would soon be mine. It was almost completely dark when I returned to our cabin completely beaten with not even one fish to show for three hours of the best I could throw at them.  This was the same for each of the five evenings that I fished the lake. On our trip home I told myself that I would return to Manzanita Lake and when I did the results would be different.

  Over the next year I talked with anyone and everyone who would give me any information about fishing for trout in a lake. I stored this information away in preparation for my return to Manzanita Lake. It took a lot of talking but I finally convinced my parents to let me go to the lake by myself. I must have been quite a sight, as I boarded a bus to Redding, with a suitcase for my clothes and two boxes filled with fishing tackle and all the gear necessary to cook my meals over a camp fire. From Redding I caught a bus that the Lodge ran once a day to Manzanita Lake. Of course I stayed in one of the tent cabins as the $2.00 per day was all I could afford along with $1.00 per day rental for one of their very old wooden row boats.

  My fishing tackle consisted of the same old rod, reel and line that I had the year before but this time I had a secret weapon. Of all the advice I had received one item kept coming up as a good way to catch trout in a lake and that was a Ford Fender. This is a big two bladed spinner on a wire with the blades spaced eighteen inches apart. It is called a Ford Fender because the blades looked like the front fenders on an old Model T Ford. To this you attached a leader with a small hook at the end. I was told that to catch trout you attach a big night crawler to the hook and then trolled it some fifty feet behind the boat going just fast enough to turn the big blades over. Did this work? Did it ever! Those trout fought each other to grab those night crawlers. I ate trout every night for three nights and then started my belief in conservation as I released all that I caught after that.

  It was here that an older gentleman introduced me to the pleasure of catching these great fish on a fly rod. To date, my largest was a beauty of just over 23 inches in length. I released it and it is my hope that it still swims free in the lake. The lake has now established as a Catch and Release Program where only artificial lures with a single barbless hook may be used. This should guarantee great fishing for the future.

  Many years have passed since this all happened, but my love affair with Manzanita Lake and Lassen Park has never wavered. In the years that followed, I have introduced my wife, two sons, granddaughter, great grandson, and many couples to all that Lassen Park and Manzanita Lake have to offer. It is a place   they have all fallen in love with.

    There have been some changes since my first visit to Lassen Park. The lodge and the old cabins are no longer there. I miss the cabins and especially those old tent cabins but this, along with the fact that there is no hotel or restaurants located in the park, has tended not to attract the massive amount of visitors that some other parks do. This makes for a more laid back atmosphere that allows you to enjoy nature as nature intended it should be enjoyed. It is an outstanding place to visit.

  When up and running there are 455 campsites located at eight camp grounds throughout the park. Each has a fire ring, table and a bear proof food locker. Potable water and rest rooms are available at each location. RV’s are more than welcome but there are no hookups.  A dump station is available at Manzanita Lake. The biggest campground is also located there. It has a convenience store, shower and laundry facilities, 20 new sleeping cabins, a museum showing the history of the park and the eruptions and Ranger presented programs that all will enjoy. Information or reservations for these camp sites can be obtained at www.recreation.gov 

  I have visited Lassen Park a total of twenty eight times and have never grown tired of all it has to offer. It is my hope that you too will plan on visiting this great park and enjoy its many features. I know you will be very pleased if you do.