I am a man of my word! The last time I went to American Lake, I hooked a hawg and lost it. I said I would be back to get it. I arrived on the lake at just a little past 10 a.m. The wind was blowing hard and there was white caps, so I figured I would just head to the far south end of the lake and troll with the wind. I was marking fish in the 35 ft to 60 ft range, in pretty big schools. I figured they were just kokanee... but I was there for the hawg. I then tried at 20 ft and by the time I was by the V.A. hospital, I started to cut across the lake. I adjusted my gear to 10 ft and about 10 mins later.. fish on! Nice little bow; 16in. & into the box it went. Still wasn't the hawg I was looking for, so after 3 1/2 hrs of trolling around the southern end of the lake, I was kind-of cold (and I'm not one to get cold easily)! I started heading back to the boat launch and I figured I'd give it a go at 5ft off the downriggers and within minutes... my pole popped off and I landed that hawg that I was looking for! Measured at 27.5 inches! Both fish were caught on a red wedding ring with a brass blade; 5 to 10 feet off the riggers (in the cold rain) ! Yee Haw!

---