I got to Fourth of July Lake before dawn, and there was already an SUV parked in the lot. I hiked along the east shoreline in twilight to the First Narrows (~1/2 mile south of the parking lot), where three guys were using flashlights and had been set up since 5:30 AM. Although the north part of the lake was frozen over with clear ice, there was open water from the First Narrows southwards. The light rain stopped after a while, and the weather was decent (5-10 MPH breeze from the southwest). Legions of fisherman could be seen hiking along the western cliffs as daylight approached.

For the first hour, I cast-and-retrieved a 3/8-oz. chrome Kastmaster and got two brief "hookups" on it. The first fish I saw was a nice 20" Raiinbow caught by a fellow from the Tri-Cities. From 7:30-8:00 AM, fishing was fairly fast using bait floating off of the bottom, so I decided to switch to Power Bait.

I got some light taps and slight "pulls" from fish nibbling on the Power Bait, but everyone there was remarking how LIGHT the fish were biting. There were some hogs up to 21-1/2 inches in length, but many people (me included) were pulling the bait out of the trout's mouths. I only was able to bring in one fish (a nice 18" Rainbow full of roe sacks), and should have gotten more had I been more patient with the light-biting fish. Others seemed to get their limit of two fish over 14" in length.

I'm rating today as a "3" not because of my fishing, but what I observed around me. People got some really nice, fat fish but the action was so-so. Rich Landers' article in Friday's Spokesman-Review newspaper was correct -- perhaps only 20% of the fish were less than 14" in length. From what I saw, the average size was 18" and many were 20 inchers.

When I got back to the parking lot at 1 PM, there was a WA Dept of Fish & Wildlife officer checking for licenses and counting fish. He said that there was good success for fisherman at Hog Canyon today, where the lake was 1/2 iced over. With the cold snap coming later this week (with highs in the teens), it won't be long before both lakes freeze over entirely.

---