Fishing opportunity for me was extremely limited this morning as I had to leave the lake at 9:00 AM to attend a grandson's graduation in Everett. Pete and I had hoped to make a dent in the 1500 triploids the WDFW was to stock in the lake for Father's Day weekend. I arrived at the lake at 4:45 AM, air temp upon arrival was 51 degrees... lake a flat calm, not a breeze... water temp at shoreline (3') was 70 degrees. Started with standard, Power Eggs on one rig, had set a small slip float to 18" with a worm on the other... had cast out the PE rig, then the float rig... had just set down my rod when I noticed a slight dip in the float... once, twice... picked up the rod and as the float disappeared beneath the lake's surface I set the hook. The lake exploded in front of me... fish on... a BIG FISH! The fish made two strong runs that had the drag on my UL reel screaming... it broke the lake's surface three times. Pete arrived and saw me fighting the fish through his truck's windshield, jumped out and ran to the lake to help me get the fish to the net. I had to extricate the fish from the shoreline weeds twice, before bringing it to the net, where Pete deftly swooped it up. The early fish had Pete and I thinking of a "dream" day of fishing, with early limits of triploid trout... WRONG! Turns out the fish was not a triploid at all... a beautiful 17 1/2" hold-over at 2.5 lbs (by my digital scale) sexually mature buck.
Watched a glorious sunrise as the fish lay on the bank... had seen many fish break the surface of the lake in the first twenty minutes after I had arrived, obviously many large fish in the lake, but as soon as the sun hit the water, surface activity ceased. A persistent breeze came out of the northwest as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Pete and I threw every color and scent of Power Bait and PE we had in our arsenal at the fish, to no avail... not even a nibble! Saw lots and lots of fishermen on the shoreline and on the docks, several on the lake in small boats, but saw no fish landed. I left the lake a bit before 9:00, no sense in riling the wife by being tardy... Had a very inspirational graduation ceremony... but couldn't help reliving the morning's great fish, over and over again as I sat in the audience.
Have a wonderful Father's Day... take the kids out fishing... get 'em hooked on this great sport!! PTL!

---