Don't usually fish on "opening day"... too many fishermen... and hooks, weights and bait flying through the air!!! Had an early morning meeting to attend, so figured the afternoon should be okay. Made plans to meet Pete about noon at Silver Lake, arrived a bit late, found him on the pier and fished for a couple hours, no luck (had one hit, no hook-ups)... saw three fish caught, two (one trip) by old-timer Orville. At 3:00 Pete and I decided to check out Stickney before calling it a day... neither of us had fished there before. Arrived at the lake a little before 4:00, already eight fishermen at the WDFW launch, but found a spot to fish from... a bit windy, but mostly sunny skies, 54 degrees. Water temp at the shoreline a very warm 62 degrees). Fished with Power Eggs (fl. orange) on a 4' leader. Ten minutes in, had my first hit and reeled in an 11" stocker (full of fight!). Another fifteen minutes, and another fish landed. By 5:30 I had three fish, Pete two. A bit of a lull, tried other colors of PE... reeled it lots of plants and algae (shallow off the shoreline). Wind really picked up by 6:00 and cloud cover rolled in... rain headed our way. Pete left at 6:30... I changed back to the fl. orange as the sky had darkened considerably, and landed my last two fish by 7:00. Four were nice, chunky 11"'ers, one at 9 1/2".
Great to run into jonb at Stickney (pic of him inflating his raft)... spent a few chatting with him about fishing... past, present and future. Saw lots of fish come in from the many boats and rafts on the lake... more than a few limits. Great to see the little children out with dads and moms, learning to enjoy this awesome sport of fishing, as I do. PTL!

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