The first day fishing after TEN months. OMG. Fishing is heaven on Earth. We three were on the lake by 11am and enjoyed a cool, semi windy, perfectly overcast day. Only two kayakers and us on the water. Little road traffic noise, no loud voices in the park, no barking dogs and heard my red-wing blackbird. Darn near perfection.
P. was in the lead with the first trout boated and ultimately the largest fish of the day. Then he boated another fish, followed by K's first and only trout. I was told the front of the boat was smelling rather skunky and I began to believe them. I didn't even get my normal "noon" fish. (I always boat at least one fish right at or near twelve o'clock. ) After many trout-trolls, we began plugging. Finally I boated a small largemouth bass so the odor improved.
K. missed a couple hits and P. boated a few more before we broke for lunch. We tucked into a little bay where the wind was less and enjoyed hot dogs, potato salad and cookies for lunch. After lunch I had a nice follow by a good sized trout but he didn't take the lure - just taunted. After we took lures out of a couple of trees, we decided to trout troll again. P and I boated a couple rainbows before wrapping up at 3pm. The body count ended with K - 1 trout, Me 2 trout and 1 bass, P had 3 trout and 1 bass.
And the highlight? One of my trout came on a vintage Washington Lakes.com spoon. I've cast it a few times throughout the years with no bites, but today I scored a lovely rainbow. Thanks Mike and Washington Lakes/Northwest Fishing! Good publicity, eh?

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