I got up really late (a curse of mine) around 8am and wanting to avoid the crowds of free fishing weeking I decided to go down towards Riffe Lake or Tilton river this weekend. I decided to check out Riffe Lake first and as I drove past the Dam on the west side of the lake and the public fishing lot was so packed I did not bother stopping. I decided to check the upper part of the lake by Kosmos and made my custumary turn towards the Kosmos boat launch and headed towards the park. Just as I made the first turn and Lake came in to view, I was shocked to see it was packed, there must have been a Bass tournament going on because there were about 20 to 30 boats in the shallow flats of the lake and two boat on trailers were coming the oposite direction leading me to believe the boat launches were full. The main park must have been full too as several cars were headed that way. I decided to try a spot that most of the locals know about and all the driving I did exploring made me edgy and wanting to get my line wet. The clock in my truck showed this was going to be very late start, around 10am. I started to walking down to the water just as the person above me landed a nice fish. A few minutes later he got another one and started packing to leave. I immediatly picked up and moved to his spot. I baited my line with fresh salad shrimp and within 15 minutes I had a nice 15inch silver that put up quite a acrobatic show that had me worried it would bring crowds around me and that I might loose it. I caught a couple huge squawfish that put up a good battle before my next keeper. It was another nice silver around 14inches. I lost two more nice fish, probably had to do with the two pound test line, the 5 foot high rock I was standing on and no net to land with. I caught a couple more huge squaw fish and had several bites but couldn't seem to hook anymore keepers. They were really pecking at the bait and with the wind picking up pretty hard and it was really hard to see the bite. I changed to a larger hook and baited with some of the fresher salad shrimp I had and caught another 14incher immediatly. I ended up catching my limit and 13 1/2 incher was the smallest I landed for the day and so many squaw fish I lost count. I left at 4pm with a great suntan, cooler full of nice red meated smokers and managed to beat the crowds too. I can say it was a good day, considering how late it started on a free fishing weekend.

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