Lake B has been good to us the past several weeks so friend Pete and I decided to give it another go. Met at the lake at 7:30 AM, fishing off the pier at 7:45. Air temp was 34 degrees upon arrival, same when I left the lake some hours later. Fog was very, very thick and made the temp feel so much colder. Water temp was 43 degrees at 10'. Set up one rig with Nightcrawlers, another with Power Eggs (salmon red). Fifteen minutes in, had a hard take down and I reeled in a beautiful 12" Cutthroat... hook was just through the lip, so I released it unharmed (on the Ncrawler). About 8:30, another hit, this time on the PE, a 13" Rainbow. Pete and I were joined on the pier by Phillip with whom we had fished before... about 10:30 he received a text from his lovely wife, stating that breakfast was ready so he departed, wise young man. Had no bites or fish activity through the rest of the morning. Pete had had enough of the chill and lack of action by 11:30, and left the lake. Was joined by another angler, Peter, about noon... I had a hard take down about 12:30 and reeled in a chunky 14" Rainbow (on PE). Peter left about 1:30. Afternoon produced lots of bites on the Ncrawlers... fish would hit over and over, and I would reel in 1/2" pieces of worm... I tried everything I could think of to hide the hook, even tied in a trailing hook, but could not get a hook-up. Ran out of Ncrawlers about 2:00, so just went with the PE the rest of the afternoon. About 3:00 I had a good hit and reeled in another "cookie-cutter" 'Bow of 13".
Throughout the afternoon, more and more anglers showed up, Big Mike, Brian, Tom, and a number of others. Altogether, I counted fourteen fishermen through the day, but mine were the only fish caught. The fish are there, just very, very picky and lethargic... not moving around at all. What worked for me, was a short leader (1 1/2' to 2' in length) and was fishing fluorocarbon leader material, and Mike's Garlic scent. Anyway, good to see more fellows out to try their luck... looking forward to the "elbow to elbow" fishing this Spring!
Had a very unexpected thrill about 11:00, as a flock of about 12 Snow Geese circled over the lake and flew over me about 75' off the deck. Have never seen the Snows south of the Snohomish Valley. Years ago I hunted them in Port Susan and on the Skagit Flats... love their call!! Lots of waterfowl on lake B... Eagles... What a joy!! PTL!

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