Well we decided to run down to Spearfish for what we hoped would be just as productive an opener as last year. Arrived at the lake early again this year and there were still a ton of people although not as many as last year ( see last year's report). Fishing was good to great with my first strike in the first 2 minutes after my fly hit the water. I unfortunately think I lost a good triploid as my line went slack after he spit the hook. Nonetheless we managed to hook and release over 40 fish in the 2 days we fished. The largest one I managed to hook this year was a nice hold over (possibly triploid) measuring 16" and nice and fat- about 2-3 lbs. I never really saw the large fish like last year with just a few pulled out in the 4-5 lbs range. The weather may have played a big factor as we were constantly hit with the tail end of the storm that plagued Seattle and had numerous wind and rail squalls come through the area. There was only one downside to this trip when this
crazy driver of a boat came blowing by me in my tube with his 35 horse merc at full throttle. He almost tipped me and swamped me as he clearly was creating an extreme safety hazard. There is no state restrictions for gas motors and no signs posted at the boat ramp, however all other boats were using electric only and given the small size of this lake (about 100 acres), this should be restricted to electric only. All in all was still good fun for rainbow fishing!

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