We had a good day on Rock today, even if you had to work at believing you would have a good day. The day started off with snow squalls and wind just driving to it from Spokane. We left with just faith that the wind would drop, and my desperate need to get away from the office.

We got to Rock about 10:30 am just to find that the wind had the lake white with waves. The water is so high that it covers some liken covered rocks along the shore. Nevertheless, after doing a little exploring, and killing time, the wind dropped to a low roar so we put the boat on the water and took off about 12:30. It was bad enough that one boat, about an 18' aluminum, would not even try it.

We found the water to be 38.2 to 38.6 degrees from inlet to outlet. The inlet is muddy, and the top third of the lake is clearly stained; water clarity of less then 2 feet. The center third of the lake is off colored, but visibility exceed 4 feet in most cases. The outlet area probably had visibility of a white target at about 6 feet.

Now, for the fishing. We found that after the end of the day we could honestly say that we caught fish on everything we threw out. We caught at least one fish on a Big-O bass plug, spinners, spoons, minnow baits, etc. Sure, there were a couple of hot colors and hot baits that did better (not going to give them to you), but all at least caught fish.

Now we were out for a trophy, so we did not catch 40 to 50 fish like RAT did, but two of us did catch at least 25, probably more, and we kept our limits for dinner and the freezer. The big one, the one that makes the 15 to 19" fish look like minnows, is a 30", 11 LB, 6 OZ Brown, caught on 6 pound line and ............................. You really did not thing I was going to tell you did you (LOL). Believe it or not, I would have released the fish, but it took the plug so deep it was bleeding bad.

I found that stomach contents off all fish ranged from empty, to snails, to back swimmers, to a large caddis larva. I even found one fresh white egg, apparently from the Rainbows trying to find a place to spawn.

In conclusion, the fishing is good right now, the fish spread out from end to end, edge to edge, and I really think that the difference between the 14" (smallest we caught today) and the biggest fish, is knowledge of the lake - time on the water.

Please remember, this lake can be and is dangerous when the winds pick up, and spring can be a killer time, literally. I know of at least 10 deaths on Rock dating from the 1950's, and nothing has changed. The rock pillars can mess up motors, the wind, especially at the dog leg, can crank up huge waves, and only experienced boaters, alcohol and drug free, should attempt to fish Rock on a day like today.