Played hookey with friend yesterday, fishing King lake for the first time.
Conditions were breezy and drizzling with 50 degree water. Caught a
12 inch cutthroat within a minute of launching on a sort of cone head
wooly bugger with rubber legs and a maribou hackle that another
friend ties (Pete, if you're reading this, what do you call those
guys?)
Three more attacked the same pattern in the next 45 minutes, one
particularly aggressive fish putting on quite an aerial display
before finally shaking the hook on the third or fourth leap. Got
quiet for another hour before taking one last cutt on a red humpy as
we were heading in.
We had Little Cavanaugh to ourselves in what could best be described
as a gale - literally raining sideways. Water temp was 48 degrees
with a halfhearted caddis hatch.
Sight casting to rising fish around the rocks near the inlet, I
landed 4 scrappy cutts within the first hour, but missed twice that
many by failing to set quickly enough. I ended up taking 3 more
(including a couple of rainbows), most in the 11-12 inch range except
for one cutt about 14 inches. The same #14 red humpy that started
work at King lake was pretty chewed up by the end of the day.
My partner (blanked back at King lake) ended up bringing 10 fish to
hand on an olive dun through a combination of sight casting or
simply slow trolling around the perimeter.
The high point of the day was when the local osprey tried to mug him
for one of the fish he was playing. He hadn't seen him until he
swooped down to make a pass at the fish. What a treat!
Kent Lufkin
