Long time No post, but we're back. As a Father's day outing, Cindy and I went up to Rufus Woods for a sunday evening "Boat Ride". We launched at the Corp Launch above Chief Joseph Dam around 1030-1200. Our goal was to cruise up river and Spot-fish the areas that have produced in the past. Our first stop was in the pump one area, with no hits, and as we headed up river we weren't able to connect at any of the usual areas. We were entertained by a Doe and her Two fawns as we were headed up. the fawns were a hundred yards or so up the hillside, but were really spooked by the boat. They would run from sage clum to sage clump trying to stay out of site. It was comical to watch as we moved by and came into their line of site, off they would go to the next clump. As we neared the "Cabin Hole", we slowed down and watched the Eagle's nest in the top of one of the Pines. Over the course of several years we have watched eagletts grow up in this particular spot. As we puttered along the shoreline a couple of heads were seen poking up over the edge of the nest. We motored on up to the lower set of pens and pulled over close to the shore 300 yards or so above the pens, and started casting toward the shore line. After several casts Cindy had a Hit, missed, and saw 4-6 trout follow in her lure. Wooo Hooo, then she said, "they were all about 10 inches long". Oh well, at least there were fish to chase. As we drifted down toward the pens we were able to C&R several smallish fish and had lots of hits. As we came to the pens, we used the bowmount trolling motor to hold us of about a half cast distance from the structure and slowly drift down casting to the pens and slow retreive. Also we used the Mooching method closer to the structure. Caught fish all along the side of the pens and then fished below the pens working the current seam as our target. We kept a couple of 3+ pound trout and a couple 5lb trout for our limit. Once again Cindy caught the Largest fish, but only by about 3 oz or so. Still gave her bragging rights. We probably C&Rd 20-30 fish between us, and got at least that many hits. The fish were hitting softly, sometimes just feeling a weight instead of a hit. We tried several Jig styles and various hardware. The Jigs caught the majority of the fish with Orange and Black marabou being the favored colors. We used 1/16 to 1/4 oz weight jigs depending on the current. Seemed the smaller fish were hitting in the top 10 feet or so of the water column, and the larger fish were down to 25 feet or so. There was current in the pens area and we feel that helped the bite. Lower end of lake did have quite abit of algae in the eddies and shorelne, and there is a cautionary warning for toxic algae for RW. Google "Rufus Woods Toxic Algae" to read the stories. Every one stay safe out there and enjoy the Great outdoors.

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