A good opening day lake should be one that has lots of fish that are easy to catch and provide a great atmosphere for kids. Well, Fish Lake met all those criteria this weekend.

I normally head back home to Okanogan for the opening weekend but this year a busy schedule didn't allow that so I ended up taking my son and his best friend out on Saturday morning. In a couple hours of fishing we landed 6 fish with several more that the boys hooked but weren't able to get in. Not bad fishing considering I was just rowing the boat and letting the boys work the fly rods as they saw fit. Experienced anglers were doing a bit better then that but the boys were content to experiment and have fun.

Sunday evening found me back at the lake again with my 8 year old daughter. Just off the boat launch I hooked into a big fish but couldn't grab the fly rod quick enough to set the hook and he pulled off. 200 yards later, my daughter lands a nice 14 inch brown trout which had her pretty excited. Good thing because things went dead for us for the next hour. Finally, after multiple fly changes we found a pattern that worked well for her. On the way back in she landed a nice brook trout and had several other strikes and lost fish. She had a great time and wants to go back out this weekend so Fish Lake accomplished its goal.

In talking with other fly fisherman, they were finding good success tossing wooly buggers into the lilly pads and stripping them out. I hope to head out there this morning to try this tactic which wasn't possible with a boat load of kids.

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