I got an early start this morning and headed out to Horseshoe Lake. I was windy and cool at 7:00 am. Water temp was between 68 and 70 degrees.

I worked my way from the boat launch on the west side of the lake around the south end where the depth is about 20' or less (this lake is pretty deep in the middle with max depths over 100'). The fish finder was going off constantly as I neared the south end shelf where the depth came up from 50+ feet to around 20'. I began to catch fish in this area with about 6 on in the next 20 minutes. I landed 5 nice Rainbows in the 12 to 14" range.

The wind began to blow a little harder and I headed to the other good shelf in the lake on the east side to try and find a little shelter. This turned out to be a great decision! I got some sun to stay warm, some shelter from the wind so I didn't get blown to the north end of the lake and the fish followed me there!! In the next 3 hours I caught and landed about 20 trout (I actually lost count). I caught one around 19", but most were in the 12 to 15" range. Of the 20 or so trout I caught, 3 were Cutthroats (I didn't know any were in this lake).

I had success with olive and black chironomids, black and olive woolly buggers, and damsel patterns. I used the "pitch and sit" method with the chironomids under a strike indicator and trolled/stripped the buggers and damsels.

There was a morning mayfly hatch, but the winds were to high to try and dry fly fish.

I will be back to this lake soon.

Tight lines!!

---