***Reminder: Rattlesnake is selective fishery. Single barbless hook and no bait***

Wanted to test out my 12 foot Aluminum boat that's been growing moss in my back yard. Hadn't used since I got it from my brother-in-law 5 years ago. I invited a friend of mine and we headed up to Rattlesnake. Got there OK and started fishing about 9:30 AM.

I usually drag the bottom with a size 8 Black Wooly Bugger. Since my friend was new to fly fishing (new to fishing in general), I set him up with the Bobber and Fly setup (ultra-light). I don't have a trolling motor yet so I just rowed most of the time.

We were up around the Southern half of the lake most of the day. Hardly anybody on the lake, we saw two other boats and that was it for most of the day.

Ok, half an hour and we finally get a fish on the fly pole. Aaah, long distance release, about a 12"-er. Rowed around for another hour before the Bobber and Fly pole is bent all the way over. Hmmm...fish on so I hand the pole over to my buddy. He's reeling it in saying, "I think that it's a small one because it's not fighting at all". That quickly changed when the Triploid saw the boat and it stated stripping out line. A few minutes into it we get a glance at it. About 18"-er or so....we don't know because right after that the Trip gets off. We look at the size 16 Renegade and the hook is bent out of shape (not straighten all the way out but pretty far... and being barbless).

We changed to a size 12 Renegade and we switched to bobber and flies for both of us. We rowed around for another 30 minutes and caught two 11.5"-ers. Sorry guys, this friend of my is fairly new to fishing so I'm just getting him hooked into fishing. Next time, I'm going to teach him Catch and Release. Sorry again...I know...Bad Bad.

Then we hooked into another Trip and this time I reeled it in. Nice fat Trip!! Then we continued to catch about 1 fish per 45 minutes. The last hour was very slow. No hits so we called it a day. As I was reeling in my line...dang it...I was dragging a 3" rainbow. No wonder I wasn't getting any hits. Well, at least I release that little guy.

Fishing with a good friend was great. The only bad thing was that somebody took my trailer license off my trailer.

Until next time...Fish On and practice Catch and Release.

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