Fourth of July Lake was PACKED for opening day of the winter season. I arrived at 5:35 AM (1.5 hours before sunrise), and there were already 15 vehicles in the parking lot. By the time I hiked to the "First Narrows" along the east shoreline, the better spots were already taken but I found a big rock to sit on by the water's edge. The fastest action in my ~4 hours of fishing was just before dawn, when several fishermen on both sides of me caught nice "football" Rainbow Trout. They were bait fishing on the bottom, while I was using a 1/4-oz. Kastmaster slab jig for catch-and-release fishing.
As daylight arrived, many boats cruised by the First Narrows. There was a thin, 50-yards-long section of ice just north of there, but the boats were able to break through it easily. The fishermen on the west shoreline at the First Narrows seemed to be doing better than the eastern fishermen. There was no wind, the sun was out, and there were only tiny amounts of thin, broken ice drifting southwards past us.
Some boaters reported that they didn't catch anything, while another "limited out" by going 1/2 way down the lake and trolling right down the middle (in the deepest water) with a Wedding Ring.
I ended up catching two 12" Rainbows and one nice 16" 'Bow on ultralight gear -- they fought hard. Some shore fishermen around me didn't catch anything on their bottom bait. Only a few caught there limits. The lake should remain basically ice-free long enough for the next few days at least.
For an "Opening Day", the action was a bit slow. Perhaps the action picked up after I left. I counted 70 VEHICLES in the parking lot when I returned there at 10:30 AM, and several more were arriving. Somebody remarked that they had never seen as many people there as today.

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