Headed for Tye Lake on a chilly and rainy Spring morning. Arrived at the lake at 5:50 AM, and lines in the water by 6:10. Temp at the outset was a chilly 43 degrees, heavy cloud cover. Though no rain for the first half hour, rain was constant and at times very heavy all morning. Water temp at the shoreline was 58 degrees. As daylight increased, could see fish rising all over the lake... some making very large splashes. Began with chartreuse Power Eggs on one rig (4' leader) and nightcrawlers under a float on the other. Fifteen minutes in... my float began to move to the left... then slipped under the surface... set the hook, and "fish on". Landed a chunky 11" Rainbow. It was obvious that the fish were at the surface and the float was the way to go... over the next four and a half hours I landed five Rainbows, all of the same relative size (11" to 11 1/2"). Every cast with the 'crawler produced bites, but the problem was getting the fish to the shore... lost literally dozens of them as they spit the hook on the way in. Tried smaller pieces of worm, but still the same results, and the bite took longer on the smaller pieces. About 9:00, my float was jerked violently beneath the surface and my rod was nearly pulled into the lake... big fish on! Played it nearly to the beach, a couple of leaps out of the water... a fish of nearly 20"... as it neared the net... suddenly it took off with my hook in it's mouth... the leader had been frayed by previous fish. My bad... just too lazy to retie the hook! Did not have a bite on the PE rig, though I changed up on numerous colors and leader lengths. The fish were definitely at the surface... bite ratio picked up when I slid the bobber stop up to shallower presentation, and shortened the leader to one foot. Had my five and on the way home by 10:30.
The shallows of the lake in front of me was littered with the carcasses of dead trout, a couple in the 15" to 16" range... I counted 14 near where I was fishing. I know that there was a kid's derby at the lake this weekend past and that they put a large number of fish in the lake for that purpose. I know that a percentage of fish will perish due to shock from being dumped into new waters... just hope the mortality was due to that, and not anglers "cherry-picking" to try for larger fish!
Saw from 20 to 24 other anglers, most spending a short time, probably due to the heavy rain. Saw only 6 or 8 other fish caught while I was at the lake, all of those under floats or bobbers as well. Fishing should be good at Tye for a while... saw some enormous splashes at the surface, belying the fact of some really big fish still in the lake. PTL!

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