Fished for about 2 hours late afternoon/evening from the bank at Panther Lake. A friendly couple that I had met on my last visit there the week before was there, he had just brought in a nice fat 14" rainbow. That made me hopeful of some good luck but none of the 4 of us had any bites for the next couple of hours. Just before we arrived a boat had come in with an 18" 2.5lb rainbow.

The week before my friend and I had watched this couple bring in two 14"-15" rainbows, one smaller rainbow, and a 16" or so cuttthroat. He also had a very hard hit that brought the tip of his pole way down, haven't seen anything comparable to that since I was salmon fishing on the sound. But unfortunately he lost it so we did not get to see what made such a dramatic hit. They were kind enough to show me their setup, if fact he re-did my rig for me, gave me some Powerbait and weights. They put four of the Powerbait floating eggs on, pushing them up over the eye of the hook, then leaving the last one to dangle and provide some action. It sure seemed to be working for them that day! A nice length of homemade weight made from hollow lead wire dangles behind the leader and makes it easy to cast way out there.

Today they told us a story of their experience fishing there last Tuesday. A strung out couple doing drugs came to hang out, then some kids came in an old truck and locked the gate with a combination padlock, trapping them in the boat launch parking lot. A call to the sheriff did not get much results, they just suggested that they leave their vehicles there until the next day. Fortunately the strung out couple had bolt cutters in their truck so they were able to cut the lock and get out. Gotta be careful out there!