some thin ice was in one end of the coulee city marina this morning, and the lake appears to be at least 6 feet lower than normal. a few rock piles that are usually never seen are protruding from the water. trolling for rainbow was slow; places where we've regularly caught them produced nary a bite. trolling the west wall produced the only bite, which turned out to be a 16-17 inch 'bow, without much fight. the surface temperature was about 43 degrees, and 35 feet down it was 41. many, many whitefish were observed swimming slowly just under the surface along the wall, seemingly not afraid of the boat. and several dead whitefish were noted floating belly-up at various points in the lake's south end. no scavenging birds were observed so we figured the eagles haven't shown up yet and the seagulls have already left. 

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