Read about some recent jumbo rainbows put into Sylvia and thought I'd give a new lake a try. Weather was cloudy with periods of heavy rain. Small lake with a small and steep ramp so I busted out the little 12 footer and was on the water by 9 am. Unfortunately I was on a new lake and had no fish finder/sonar to help. I used a combination of trolling, drifting and casting with various presentations and various depths. A local informed me it was about 13 ft on the ramp side of the bridge and 50 ft or so in the main body of the lake. Small lake and trolling was kind of a joke but I was able to hook fish all morning. Problem was catching anything of respectable size. In an hour I had caught and released 4 rainbows in the 8-10 inch range. Switched to some trolling flies and blades with no bait to try to hook up something respectable deeper. The last bite was a 13 inch that I took home for lunch.

So no biggies for me that day. I saw a lot of still poles held by shore anglers. I did however see one 5-6 pounder caught by another tiny boat with 2 larger men in in that almost capsized during the battle.

I was also reprimanded by the park ranger for having my small outboard in the water and not trimmed up. Never was running as I used my electric trolling motor exclusively. Lesson learned.

So the jumbos are in there, I just couldn't keep the little hungry fellas from hooking up. If I were to go again I think I'd spend some time jigging in the deep section more.

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