Arrived at Swofford Pond around 800 am. Slight breeze from the west around 5-10 mph. Cloudy, threatening rain for most of the day. Water temperature was around 70F.

Quite a few people were already on the water when I showed up. Paddled around for a while to see if any critters were hatching, and to see if anything was rolling. Of course...didn't find anything. Did find quite a few shucks...but nothing actively hatching. Decided to tie on my trusty brown woolly bugger and troll around for a bit. Spent the first half hour untangling my line from milfoil. The water is a lot weedier than it has been the last few times I have been there. Everywhere I was able to troll the last few trips is now overgrown, with the tops of the milfoil being a couple inches below the surface. Only clear lane I had to troll was about 50-75 meters from the head gates to about 200 meters from the far west end, and anywhere from 10 meters from the north shore out about 100 meters or so. Everything else was full of weeds.

Trolled around for a bit, caught and released 3 rainbows on my first pass. Ended up catching and releasing 6 rainbows, anywhere from 12"-14". Got bored trolling and tied on a #14 Adams dry fly and fished for some Bluegill. Caught and released several nice sized one's that appeared to be in the middle of spawning. They were very brightly colored and fat. They were little fighters too. Good fun.

Did manage to get surprised by two fish. While trolling buggers, I managed to catch a fish that surprised both the fish and I. Dropped my line as close to the bottom as I could and trolled very slowly. My guess is this rainbow was suspended near the bottom, and I was trolling so slow it didn't see the fly coming and took a hook in the side of the head. It spooked the fish so bad it took off like a bullet. My reel started screaming and spooled line faster than I have ever seen it. Then just as fast as it started...it stopped. I raised the rod to feel for any weight...but didn't feel anything. I started trolling again, and the reel went bonkers. I raised the rod again, this time I knew I had a fish on. Brought it in and found my fly had foul hooked the thing in the side of the head. Popped the hook out, said I was sorry and let it go.

The second fish that spooked me came as I made a close pass to lily pads while trolling. Was running parallel to the weeds, then made a 90 degree turn and headed back out to deeper water. About the time bugger got to the point I turned and started back out, my reel again went bonkers. It spooled so fast and made so much noise I about fell off the pontoon. About the time I reached down to grab the rod a decent sized large mouth leaped from the water, danced around and tossed the hook. Good thing...as hard as it hit and decided to run with it...I'm sure something would have come away broke.

Not a bad day...but not a spectacular day, either. Walked away catching and releasing a handful of Bluegill and Rainbows. Got a little damp from the handful of showers that came through. Left around 800pm.

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