what a fantastic day out on badger! coincidentally, i looked back thru the older reports for badger and one year ago TO THE DAY i wrote a similar report after a very successful day. what a bummer that the season closes next week just when the fishing is picking up!

but back to the fishing report...

we were on the water by about 7:30. outside temp=39, water temp=60. there were cool whisps of moisture hovering over the water since it was 10 degrees warmer than the outside temp. we shot straight from the launch to the scene of our last successful outing -- left (east?) from the launch down to the area where those flags are hanging from the rope swing. we started out slow, but by 9:00 were into the fish. we caught most on spinners. some on a blue jointed rapala. early on it didn't appear to matter the color (pink, yellow, white, rainbow), but as the day approached noon the rainbow vibrax spinner was money. best luck was casting out into the middle of the bay, counting 10-15 seconds for it to drop to deeper water and then ripping that sucker in as fast as we could reel. the fish were active and ready for a chase. 30' of water was the magic depth.

we had to be back in town by noon so being afraid we might not get our limit we decided to fill the first 3 slots with the best fish we could catch early on, and then get "picky" for the final two slots. well i closed the day with two 14", two 10" and one eye-hooked 9". dave caught an absolutely stunning cutthroat among his count, but came up a fish short, he got greedy trying to fill that 5th slot with another big cutt. ;-)

by mid-day, when we were leaving, the outside temp was in the hi-50's, low-60's i'd guess, and the water temp was up to 62-63. clear blue skies, bright sun. i have GOT to get back this week and/or this coming weekend before it closes. what a fantastic lake!

I LOVE THIS LAKE!! good luck out there!

p.s.>> two questions:

1) when i used to flyfish for cutts (upper st. joe, kelly creek and upper cd'a rivers) we'd catch cutts but the red "cut" was maybe an inch or so long from the gills back. the cutts in badger were "cut" from the side of their head nearly the length of their body. is this just an inner-species trait? hatchery? hybrid? do lake fish eat better and therefore color differently? just curious.

2) for you east-siders out there, where do you shift your attentions to once the majority of lakes close on the 30th? i have an idaho license and live near the border (liberty lake), so can hit the year-round season there, but i was wondering if there are any good late-season lakes to hit now? i'm OK with catch & release, but i do like to keep a few for dinner that night too (that's a deal i made with my wife, and a pretty good one at that! ha ha). any advice much appreciated!

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