Lot's of stuff going on in this ol' fella's life, but always manage to squeeze in some time for wetting a line... enjoying my passion! Headed for Blackman's Lake in Snohomish. Like the "little girl with the curl", Blackman's has been very good to me, but when she's bad, she's been "horrid"! Arrived at Hill Park at 5:00 AM, on the pier and fishing by 5:20... air temp at 50 degrees at the outset, water temp at the bottom off the pier (approx. 15' deep) at 68 degrees. Sky was cloudless, and lake a dead calm. Began fishing with pink Power Eggs (6' leader) on one rig, red PE on the other (4' leader). Early on, lots of rises on the lake... very heavy hatch of a very small white midge near the pier, soon the surface was covered with spent midges... then a heavy hatch of March Brown mayflies joined the midges. Fish were feeding near the surface, so I traded one PE rig for one set up with a float for nightcrawlers... had hits almost immediately, but had trouble hooking up. Meanwhile, at about 6:15 my pink PE rig began to dance and I reeled in my first Rainbow of the day, a beautiful 12+" 'er. I continued to have hits on the nightcrawlers... about 7:00 my float was jerked violently under the surface and I was into a heavy fish, for sure the biggest of the day... I fought it all the way to the pier and was getting my net ready, when it popped off... a couple of the fishermen who had joined me on the pier groaned out loud, but I love the fact that the fish won one over me. Anyway, I was able to hook two nice Rainbows on the nightcrawlers in the next two hours. By 9:00 the sun had risen above the trees and hit the surface of the lake... a slight breeze put a ripple on the water and the surface activity ceased. My final two Rainbows came on the pink PEs and I had my limit of 5 by 10:00 and headed home. All five Rainbows were healthy and feisty fish, the smallest at about 11 1/2" and the largest at 13 1/2". Thankful to the WDFW for planting such great representative fish in this lake!
Had four other fishermen join me on the long pier, and there were six more on the northernmost pier. Saw another four or five on the WDFW pier across the lake. Only saw three other fish caught while I was at the lake, all on long leader presentations.
When I cleaned the largest fish, I discovered a curiosity... a small 1 1/2" cylinder of fibrous material (about the shape and texture of a cigarette filter) in its stomach. It appeared as if it had been cut and soaked in something to use it as bait... it had a hole in it that appeared to be where a hook had been inserted. My concern is that whatever it is, it is certainly indigestible to the fish. I guess, whatever works!
Wasn't a long day at the lake... saw a couple Ospreys fishing the far end of the lake, the eagle pair were active early, and lots of baby goslings in the care of mom and dad Canada Geese. Thank you Blackman's Lake for being very, very good to me. Oh, BTW last trip to Blackman's my camera battery was dead. This trip, I forgot the camera... my wife calls it "sometimer's disease"! PTL!

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