Longing for some brookies, I fished a lake in the Okanogan this afternoon for a few hours that can put out some nice sized brook trout. I arrived about 12:30pm and had the lake to myself. Conditions were overcast with ocassional sun breaks and a slight breeze that created a nice "chironomid chop" on the surface. Not too many bugs on the surface on my arrival, but as I made my way to the shallows in the north end a hatch of tiny, tiny olive chironomids (24's)were coming off and the hatch intensified as the afternoon wore on. I actually anticipated these tiny chiro's being present and last night tied up some patterns I wanted to match the hatch with only to forget them on my tying table. Not good. Throat samples revealed that this was the primary food source they were keying on, but for every dozen of these little guys there were also 1-2 size 14-16 chromies in the sample. Fishing was not fast and furious (8 takes and four fish to hand in two-two and a half hours) but it was fun to catch some brookies again- Largest was 17inches and the smallest was 13inches. Very few fish in the shallows and only a handful of rises in the 2 hours I was on the water. Anchoring up on the edge of the drop off, all fish were taken about 8 ft down in 10 ft of water under and indicator on size 14 chromies. Tried fishing in the shallows and in the deepest water (12-15 feet) but had no success in those depth zones.... Still a bit early but this lake should really get going in the new few weeks when the larger chironomids that inhabit the lake get the fish stirring.

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