Mike Carey and I arrived at Kitsap County's Panther Lake early in the AM. The sun was up but the mist and steam were still rising from the lake's surface indicatating that the lake water was warmer than the morning air. We were the first to launch on this Friday morning. The gravel launch area is very shallow and Mike had to back his boat and trailer quite a ways into the water. The rear wheels of his truck were probably 6 feet or more into the water. I was wearing shorts and wading sandals so I got to wade in and push the boat off the carpeted bunks. It is is the type of launch that would make a trailered boat angler a little nervous unless he didn't have a trusty 4 wheel drive. Mike found a nice bass very quickly after launching. I fumbled with his video recorder trying to get it on film but I was a clutz. Don't know if he can save any of it or not. Sorry Mike. I soon after hooked up with a nice bass on a size 11 Floating Rapala. She hit the lure on the surface but there was no big splash at the strike -- she just swirled and slurped the lure into her mouth. Mike is very adept at filming and got some of the action on video. He also shot a couple still shots before the bass was thanked for the memories and gently released. The action died down after that but Mike caught a nice rainbow on his drop shot rig and I hooked another bass on my Rapala. All of our fish were released. We had the lake to ourselves for bass fishing but a couple other boats launched and fished for rainbow. All in all, it was a very nice morning on the lake. We even got a nice peek at the beautiful Olympic Mountains from the lake.

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