Like always, a million fish were caught at Wilderness for the derby and it was just as fun this year as it has been in years past. Very well put together event by the city of Maple Valley, much thanks to the pancake crew as well!!!

Got on the lake at 4:00 am and fished hard until 11:00 am. Me and a buddy limited after a few hours and caught and released for the remainder of the morning. Mostly trolling with wedding rings, very effective for the stockers. Smallest fish we kept was 12 1/2" and largest was 14". Tasted great in the smoker last night!

Funny story, my buddy hooked into a pretty decent little rainbow and we finally net him. I'm using the pliers to remove the wedding ring and to my suprise there is a home-made stonefly lure stuck in the other side of his mouth. Our friends on another boat are nearby and come over to see the prize. I told them about the stonefly lure and he cracks up laughing, he had just lost his lure to a fish earlier this morning. Sure enough, he opens up his tackle box and shows us his bag of stonefly lures he makes (and was using) which matched the one in our fish's mouth exactly. Needless to say, I returned his lure but we kept the fish!

Hilarious, just another good time out on the lake and another "fishing story" added to the arsenal to be believed by few.

Pic's show the 2 lures in the rainbow's mouth and also a nice little cutthroat we got.

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