Putting in, I found that my last-minute decision the night before to bring a 6wt bamboo rod instead of a 4wt graphite came at a price: I'd forgotten to bring the matching spool with the WF6 line and so had to muscle a puny WF4 the whole day. Thanks to the near-windless conditions though, it could have been a whole lot harder than it was.
We decided to fish the east end of the lake and had the place to ourselves until about 10am when two others arrived and went to the opposite side of the lake. The air temperature ended up in the mid-50s and the water was an even 54�. The water was unusually clear, allowing a view of the bottom nearly everywhere. There were no signs of any hatch activity. I only saw a couple of wayward dragonflies, a few small mayfly and chironomid adults, a bee or two, and a brief flurry of midges just before sundown.
By the time we pulled out under the Milky Way, Les had landed 8 fish and I'd released 15, both of us with another 3 or 4 LDR'd. Nearly all were RBs from 16 to about 19 inches. Their appearance ranged from pure silver with a few speckles to deeply colored with heavily spotted reddish bronze flanks. Some dogged it after being hooked, coming almost peacefully to hand while others tailwalked and fought every inch of the way. One brute that I hooked about noon at the inlet took off like a torpedo making my Bougle scream in a vain protest, pulling out half my line before finally shaking the hook.
Just after sundown there was a brief period when nearly every cast produced a strike or a fish. We had a couple of doubles including one at about 5:30pm when we released a pair of 17-18 inch browns.
I fished a size 12 no-bead gold-ribbed hare's ear off a floating line and 12 foot 4X leader the entire day, changing only a couple times when a fish had ingested one too deeply to safely remove. Les tried a couple dozen different patterns but the GRHE ended up producing best for him as well.
I'm still grinning after a nearly perfect day on the water.
K
