We were hoping to avoid crowds in Moran State Park this weekend, so managed to get out of the office on Friday, but the weather wasn't on the same schedule we were. Got up and saw it was to be windy, cool and rainy, but hey, a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work....and the fishing turned out great anyway!

Trailed to the lake and was dismayed to see that Rosario Resort had drawn down the lake in a huge way with their water rights. Last week 7 ribs showed on the launch ramp and today 11! We won't be able to launch very shortly which stinks. The wind was really huffing and blowing right onto the ramp, but off we went in 1' swells. The wind made the trout troll very impractical but within the first fifteen minutes we all three had trout on. I boated mine, but P lost his and we decided to give K. credit for his as he got it pretty close to the boat before its acrobatics shook him off. K gets credit for the big trout of the day as it was a nice one that got away compared to mine.

We turned and made another trout troll through the area where we all had hits. I picked up one more. But managing the trolling motors in that wind was pretty tough and because we started seeing bass moving last week we figured we could do some plugging this week and find them. That methodology took us closer to shore and into bays and out of the worst of the wind which was steady at 12mph and gusting.

P. got into small bass and then connected with a gorgeous red-ear. K. picked up a few bass too, but unfortunately spent more time retying and stripping off old brittle line than fishing. He grabbed a reel whose line was far too old. I('ve learned that lesson myself. It really behooves you to change your line frequently!)

Last night I said, "I'm going to catch the biggest fish tomorrow." And the fish gods smiled down upon me. I cast to a floating log, let the floating lure sit, twitched it a few times and bam....a substantial fish was on. It took drag immediately and I said, "Get the net!" I didn't want to mess around and play the fish and not have a net ready as I knew it was a nice bass. Got it close to the boat/net and it dove down three more times taking drag. Thanks to P. we got him in the net and measured at 17", photographed, kissed and released for another day. What a treat!

After a quick lunch, the wind found us in our bay and the rain started. We put on both motors and made our way to the ramp in a downpour. It was a much too brief trip 11-2pm but we caught and released 24 fish. K. 2 bass, 1 trout, P. 5 bass, 4 sunfish and I get the prize with 9 bass, 2 trout and 1 red-ear. (Oh yeah, and I had the substantial fish, so it was worth the chill and wet clothing.)

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