Bass Remain a Mystery Despite Publication Online

We haven't been to Blue Mountain Lake since 2015, when my wife, my son, and I searched for the nonexistent Upper Blue Mountain Lake, believing at the time that it did exist. We did find an area well grown over that looked like it might have been the lake before the dam was removed, but I'm not certain the lake ever existed, though it seems likely it did, given that many decades ago the area was a vacation community.. My uncertainty about Upper Blue Mountain Lake goes to show that even with the internet, facts can still elude their certain representation. All that's left to do is hit the trail and see for yourself. You find what looks like the imprint of an impoundment from many years ago, but you can't be altogether certain. You view the map featured by the best article on the situation you've found, and it looks like Upper Blue Mountain Lake was planned on but never created. 

I didn't fish during our 2015 visit, but in 2014, I did, when only my wife and I came. I caught a bass, but in the post on the outing I gave way to a rant about the Tocks Island Dam ordeal. In that post, I said the dam project was all for nothing, but given that the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area came into being instead of the reservoir, it's clearly arguable that something good came of it. It's good I've grown up since 2014, but I still feel sympathy for the people who lost their homes.

Today's bass came on my second or third cast with a Wacky rig. When we had walked the quarter mile or so into the lake from the parking lot, and I had got to the water's edge before my wife showed up, a young man got in the water and swam across to the island. I put a cast near where he had got in, imaging that his having stirred up the bottom might draw a bass over. It would have measured nearly 16 inches long. 

I continued to work my way toward the dam. A couple of trout anglers had taken position there in such a way that I could get around them and fish the corner where I caught the bass in 2014. But where I fished at present, I felt something peg the worm, and I set the hook into a little bass that got off. I did fish the corner to the right of the anglers in the photo below, but not much more than that. It's nice feeling satisfied with one fish, and there are times when that's a good catch. Besides, to really fish Blue Mountain Lake effectively, haul a kayak in. Or ice fish it.

I ended up hanging out with my wife and black Lab Loki before I made my trek to the corner, to be certain whether or not I would run into another bass. There's well to be said for relaxing beside a lake in the wild as if nothing else matters, and I lay on the grass and took it all in for about 20 minutes before I finally tried the corner. On my walk back from that corner, I tried my Merlin bird song identification app on my mobile device, only to be informed of no service. 

Not only is there no service up there, the bass remain a secret, even as I write about them and publish online. If you want to catch some, you'll need to jockey in a kayak a quarter mile. Otherwise, consider one bass a good catch. Marvel at the mystery of all the rest. And all that wild space, which nor very long ago was hundreds of affordable summer homes.  

Waterfall on Van Campens Brook, which I didn't fish.

The corner is to the right of the end of the grass.

2013