Well, after a year of just lurking, I suppose it's time to submit some reports again.

Considering the fact that Spokane is currently undergoing quite the spring blizzard, I sure am glad that I went fishing with my friend last weekend. We had a fabulous day on the water on Monday, and didn't have to share the water with many others. The wind was up from the south, pushing some rollers along most of the lake. We fished sheltered water just north of the bend primarily.

The water temp moved around 38 degrees and was stained green with visibilty to 3 or 4 feet. We used lots of methods and all of them worked: trolling flies, trolling lures, casting jerkbaits, swimbaits, and minnowbaits. Fish catching was good in terms of size, not numbers. Between the two of us we brought 10 fish to the boat, 3 brought home, about half and half regarding rainbow/brown. The smallest though was maybe down to 16". Most of the fish were at or above 18". The big daddy in the photo is my new personal best for Rock. He went an easy 24", likely near 26". The time it took to untangle him from the net eliminated the time to get a tape on him, bummer. That one is still swimming free however!

To sum up, my friend and I were kicking around some theories on Rock Lake browns. Everything that I know about brown trout has come from the rivers and streams of Montana. There you will find that browns are very solitary and very territorial. If there is one nice piece of cover in a riverbend, you can bet that there will be one brown on it and there won't be many others around. That's kind of what my buddy and I are thinking is happening at Rock. We primarily focus on shoreline presentations. If you move along the bank, casting right at the shoreline, you will often pick up bites and great follows from these browns. But then, say you catch one from a promising spot and keep casting - nothin'.

I don't think these fish are like a school of cutthroats or a wolfpack of smallmouth. Each fish has his 50 feet of bank and that's it. Granted, I'm sure an expert like AnglinArcher or one of the many other successful fisherman may disagree but I like it. In addition, it turns out to be a perfect compliment to my bass fishing mentality. Moral of the story, tie on a jerkbait, a big jointed Rapala, a swimbait (preferably a pretty big one!), or even a swim jig, turn the trolling motor up and target cast for a mile or so of bank. Strangely enough, focus on the rock and not the brush/willows, and you should have a fabulous time on the lake. This is a great way for all you bass fishermen to shake off the dust and get your casting arm into shape.

Anyways, sorry for the novel, good luck everyone, think Spring!