launched at Bridgeport at dawn...it took a little longer to make the run to the net pens because we stopped many times along the way to watch the deer coming down to drink, it was to be a warm day in the hundreds. Finally got to the net pens area about 7 am, the water was like glass, was fairly clear and had a soft current to it.

We don't tie up to the pens, instead we use the bow-mount motor and float around the area, looking for trout and today was an exceptional day for spotting them. They were travelling around in nice size schools of up to 30-35 fish. With the water clear, surface like glass and sun shining down, it was a truly amazing day! I can only describe it as the closest one can be to fishing in a fish hatchery without actually fishing in one! We were looking at trout all morning long. Sight fishing is always, in my opinion, the most enjoyable way to fish.

They were very finicky but taught us a lot by watching what they do when presented with different baits. They would race up to hit lures, but veer off at the last few inches, or nibble and race away to return and repeat the process, or come up...look closely and then just gulp whatever we were using and then it was HANG ON!!!!

We caught them sporadically but consistently on just about everything. I was tying on new things to try from the tackle box about every 5 or 10 min....., trying to find the magic lure and/or color that they wanted to hit with a passion but just couldn't find that "special" lure for the day.

We tried spinners, small plastic imitations, flatfish, straight and broken back sinking rapalas, kastmasters, superdupers, small crankbaits, jigs and caught fish on all of them but when I was in a hurry to try a fly I just used a split shot to get the fly to the fish I noticed that they were hitting the split shot more than the fly......although I caught a few on a black wooley bugger, I tried just the split shot slid all the way down till it was touching the top of a #4 egg hook and caught two that way!! No other bait than just a split shot!!

One thing that definitely did not work, didn't even get a look, was the old flying lure!! Just to show how many different things we were using! If we caught a fish on something, we would try it for a while and then switch to a different lure, just to see what they would do with it.

Spotted one trout lurking around on the bottom next to the shore in about 8' of water that had to be a new state record, this fish was huge!!!! and fat, it was so big it dwarfed the other trout around it!! It was truly amazing to see a trout this size...before it drifted out of sight into deeper waters.

At the end of the morning, we caught 22 fish, had to keep 3 because they just were too aggressive and almost swallowed the jigs or lures we were using. We came home with a 7lb, 6lb and a small 2.75 pound-er. We released several 7 pound-ers, just couldn't catch anything bigger than that today, had one that may have gone 13lbs but....the biggest always gets away don't they??!!!? He took my imitation fish pellet bait, made from cutting a small section out of a plastic worm to look like a fish pellet.....yes, they were hitting on about everything, as long as the presentation was correct.

I don't like to troll like many people do here because when watching the fish, as the boat approaches them, they veer way off to get out of the way of the boat, when trolling, your line is behind the boat and the fish are way out along the sides of your boat......., your mainly trolling in waters that have no fish in them, but maybe if people used a really really long line they might do better or side planers to get their bait away from the old path of the boat....just a thought, will have to try that next time out to field test my theory on that.

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