Well I opted to sleep in the extra couple of hours today and went to Coffee Pot Lake instead of Lenice. I had heard that the boat launch was still iced over but there was clear water if you had a float tube. I have a little 8 foot boat that I can pack on my shoulder a ways so I thought I would give it a shot. It turned out to be a bad idea as the clear water was too far away to pack into with the boat. I would have been fine with a float tube though. The water by the inlet is starting to show so by next weekend things may be in better shape. I would give it two weeks for the ice to be totally gone, or another big wind storm. Since Coffee Pot was kaput, I drove down to Fourth of July Lake. I figured it would be packed and windy but was surprised on both counts. Guess the NCAA tournament made a dent in the fisherman. Only about 2 dozen on the lake that I could see. Fishing was slow in the morning hours but I did pick up a nice, fat 18 inch rainbow that jumped 5 times and made several nice runs. Pretty impressive display for a fish who was still under ice a week ago. Had one other strike an hour later and then landed another 18 incher that jumped and fought even harder then the first. This one was a football and had eaten well over the winter months. That was it for my action in 3 hours but I was talking to a gentleman who was using an Atomic worm pattern and landed 3 and missed two more in that time period. I was trolling wooly buggers slow and deep. One fish and one strike came while stripping and the first fish came on the troll. If live in Eastern WA and want to get out for some fun action, check out Fourth of July Dell, I was talking to a friend of yours that went on the trip to Kodiak Island with you and Clay. I forgot to ask his name but he was a very nice fellow indeed. Mike Spangle, WA
