Ah, to be back on the lake early in the morning...

The lake was tabletop smooth as we slipped the boat into the lake as dawn crawled over the cliffs. The sun began to spill over those same cliffs as I caught the first fish, a 14" cutthroat. We trolled under the power lines hung high over the lake (and saw that the osprey had again built a nest on the power pole on the SE side of the lake!), enjoying the time on the lake and noticing the large number of fish we WEREN'T catching.

A sure sign that fishing will be S-L-O-W at a lake:
Look at the number of bugs on the lake surface.

On this day, the surface of Badger lake looked as though bugs were used to season it... Millions and millions of BUGS on the surface. The fish must've seen those bugs as a continuous Sunday Brunch.

That Other Fellow In the Boat and I arrived at Badger Lake to, of all things, FISH. And fish we did. From the crack of dawn to the heat of the afternoon, we taunted, we teased, we cajoled, we did nearly everything we could think of to get those stubborn fish to bite--- and caught but four fish. To be fair, they were nice fish--- 3 of them were healthy cutthroats and the other one a 14" rainbow trout with a marked tendency to want to jump out of the boat.

The fish finder kept teasing us with tales of "Fish below! Fish below!" But after a couple of hours of this, I was beginning to think the darned thing was made by the fish to taunt US...

I quit trying to keep up with the number of lure changes we did--- from wedding rings, to Super-Dupers, to Rapalas; from Wiggly Wonders to even rice krispie treats!--- the fish had their agendas just as we had ours. And Nary the 'Tween Shall Have Met. Their Sunday Brunch of Bugs may have not been exactly formal--- but it was plentiful for them.

Despite not limiting-out, we still had a great time fishing at Badger Lake.

Thanks for having this opportunity to share the fishing!!

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