Picked up friend, Pete, and headed to Blackman's. Brought him a couple packs of his "lucky gum", so I figured it to be a banner day! Arrived at Hill Park about 6:30AM and headed for north pier. Met a colorful character named Rodger who was only one there at the time... 6-7 fishermen on south pier. Beautiful morning, air temp. was 66 degrees when we arrived, steadily climbing all morning. Water temp. was 70 degrees at 10'. Didn't expect much because of the temperature... wanted to get out fishing somewhere... Blackman's was a decent choice. About 7:00AM Rodger had a small trout to the dock when it "self-released". All of us were using chartreuse Power Bait. About 7:30 Pete caught a beautiful, silver Cutthroat, 10 1/2". At 8:00 I changed up to pink Power Bait and within five minutes caught a Rainbow, 11"... and our "catching" was over. Had a few subtle bites through the rest of the morning, but no hook-ups. Some young fellows showed up about 10:00 and were able to hook a 6" Perch on worms... other than that, saw no other fish caught all morning. By 9:00AM the south pier had upwards of 12 fishermen, and we were joined by 6-8 more. Lots of people out to enjoy the sunshine. We left at 11:00AM.
Saw some really big fish surface on a very placid lake in the first hour. From 8:00 on, a fairly strong breeze blew from the north... with it came lots of the blue-green algae heading shoreward. Water clarity was definitely a negative factor in today's fishing.
A beautiful morning to be out fishing, anywhere. The joy of the morning was enhanced by being able to watch several brightly colored hot air balloons rise over the Snohomish Valley, then a couple hours later watching groups of skydivers descend onto the Snohomish airfield. PTL!

---