Fished Buck Lake just after a small, blustery front went through, with occasional spitting rain. Checked the barometric pressure and saw a nice drop ... figured this might activate the rainbows in Buck. Also thought that using nightcrawlers would be good to try after this rain. Fished nearer the far western side (nearer lily pads) from the boat access until I realized I was in too shallow water with lots of milfoil. Moved to the center of the lake and still-fished with corn-flavored Powerbait nuggets for 30 minutes just for ha-has. Nothing. Switched to original idea (nightcrawlers, still-fished with slip-sinker), but no bites for another 20 or so minutes. Being the impatient sort (great for a fisherman!), I thought I'd switch to nightcrawlers under a slip bobber, fished about 7 - 8 down, with commercially-bought nightcrawler-flavored oil squirted on 'em. THAT was the ticket! As the wind settled down, and the lake surface got glassy (6:30 PM at this point), I could see small boils and dimples as the 'bows rose. I tried casting to one dimple ... waited ... after 3 minutes: BOOM! A nice rainbow nailed the bait and jammed down the bobber -- had a nice fight before I brought in a 13" FAT 'bow, which I released after gently netting it. Got three more like that (one about 14 and a half), in the center and easterly third of Buck in the next 50 minutes or so. After that, some younger fellas at the boat launch (still-fishing with bright green Powerbait) caught one small and one larger (12" approx.) as it got nearer to dusk ... but I was done for the day. Brought the ol' raft in, satisfied I had C&R'd some of the bigger ones for this lake. I think many of the smaller plants have been culled by opening day-- the older wilier ones remain: Wait 'em out or use yummy-looking worms with a tiny bit of action to 'em (little bobber twitches turned 'em on!).

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