First fishing expedition of the year. My fishing buddy Darrin and I got out on the lake at 7:00 am at the Atlantic City ramp just south of Seward Park. Coulon Park doesn't open until 8:00. We trolled our way over to the south end of Mercer Island. I was going deep, about 40 feet and Darrin was on the surface. We were seeing quite a few fish on the finder but very deep, 100 feet or more. Near the island, we spent about an hour trolling in sixty feet of water with no luck. Finally, we decided to go closer to the shore. We trolled our gear just about ten feet off the end of the docks. I had switched to a small Husky Jerk in the rainbow pattern with no weight, just below the surface. We picked up our only fish of the morning about 10:30, a frisky 15 inch rainbow on the Rapala. We were spotting lots of fish on the finder, but this was the only one we could get to bite.
My finder said the water temp was 45 degrees on the surface, warming to about 48 by the time we pulled out at noon. Talked to one other fisherman at the dock. He had caught one about the same size, also in close to shore, on a Cleo spoon.
All in all, a little bit slow on the fishing but an absolutely gorgeous morning. We heard the Dome come down at 8:30 in a thunderous round of concussions.

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