I have been teaching a beginning fly fishing class for EWU and last night was our outing to Amber Lake. Let me tell ya, having 6 newbies out in tubes is a harrowing and busy experience! We had a beautiful evening and the fish were cooperative. The first fish caught was a healthy 20 inch net pen triploid and was caught by a young lady who had never caught a fish before. Like the one I caught on Friday, this one fought hard initially but acted absolutely exhausted upon release. It had to be worked a bit before it would swim away. If these fish don't get a little bit more endurance before the warm weather hits, many of them will not survive catch and release in warm water. You can identify these fish by the rounded off corners on their tails. They do not have clipped adipose fins though like the triploids purchased by the fly club do. Everybody caught at least two fish and a brown wooly bugger was the hot fly. The group caught several of the fin clipped triploids that have been released into the lake by the fly clubs and two of them were in the 18-19 inch range. Those boys should get to a nice size by the end of the season. I have to believe larger fish exist in the lake as one of the students didn't have backing on his reel (unbeknown to me!) and had a strong fish spool him and break his line. Guess he learned the lesson of why we use backing the hard way. The last half hour of daylight produced an indcredible evening rise to the hordes of midges that were coming off. I had some great dry fly action as did several others. Still no sign of damsels or mayfly's yet. I was just telling my wife that Amber is really behind this year in the damsel hatch. Several years ago we went fishing on May 11th (her birthday) and the damsel action was fast and furious. This is the second class I have taught and must say that it is a really rewarding experience. Mike Wilson
