Met friend, Pete, at the south shoreline of Green Lake, at 7:00 AM. Lines in the water by 7:20... raining at the start, temp at 52 degrees... water temp at 60 degrees at the shoreline. Started with both rigs with fl. orange Power Eggs, one on a 7' leader, one on a 4' leader. As soon as it was light, saw a large flock of Mergansers and lots of Cormorants fishing in close to the shore... figured the Rainbows were shallow. Pete got us started with a beautiful Rainbow of about 17"... carryover at 7:30. Then my rod tip began to dance and I reeled in my first, a solid 12" Steelhead. For the next two hours, action was pretty consistent... Pete caught a couple more, and by 9:30 I had my sixth. Got to confess, I do feel just a slight twinge of guilt as I continue fishing after my first five... but the guilt disappears quickly when I catch the sixth!! Anyway... after 9:30 we hit a lull in the action... no hits at all. Tried changing up to different colors of PE, worms, shrimp... tried spin casting for awhile... nada. Pete figured the day was done and left for home at 11:15... I stuck it out... no place I would rather be than on a lake or stream (or ocean) doing my favorite thing, FISHING! At 11:30 had another hard hit and reeled in a 13" Steelhead, followed by another ten minutes later. Had a few more hits, lost two more at the net... then landed my ninth at 12:15. The last one took patience... no more hits until 2:15 when I reeled in my tenth, and biggest of the day at just under 14".
Again, these are awesome fish... all of them were adipose fin clipped Steelhead, the smallest at just under 12" to almost 14". Another month and they will put on great bulk feeding in the lake and will be quite the trophies!
Was great to chat with HULI_ISDA (Philip) as he and his father were celebrating their common birthday with a trip to the lake. Happiest of Birthdays to you both! Saw about a dozen fishermen out braving the elements, saw few other fish caught. Saw Cormorants snag two, and the Mergansers were scarfing up the small LMB.
All my fish were caught on the fl. orange PE, two came on the 4' leader, all others were on the 7' leader, suggesting that the fish are at or just below the surface for now. Weather was a factor, trying to cast a 7' leader in a wind storm is problematical to say the least. By 10:00 the rain showers had ceased, but the wind continued to gust. Around noon, the sun even came out for a brief time, but by 1:00 the rains returned with a vengeance. Going to continue to be some great fishing for some time to come... got to take advantage of this "once in a lifetime" opportunity. I see lots of delicious smoked trout in the Holiday Season! PTL!

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