I feel Blessed to live in Washington and have the health and time to go fishing. Yes it gets crowded and fishing is very limited this year. I got there opening day at dawn. I must give a big Thank You to the park staff who were doing a great job to facilitate the crowds and help get people parked. I got one of the last 2 parking spaces and waited about an hour to launch. I went to my usual spot and used all sorts of set-ups trying all different depths and lure combos. Kept asking and hearing about fish caught from 25- 65 feet. Yet I wasn't hooking up and going crazy with excitement. Finally I calmed down long enough to go back to what I knew would work and started catching them. Secondly I remembered to enjoy myself and have a positive attitude. By 10:00 I had my limit. I would have been in by 9:00 if I hadn't crackered so many. Man what a hoot!! O.k. some important details. I started with O dodgers with pink hootchies and 2 hooks, but ended with only 2 red hooks and used them the rest of the time there. Trolled at 1.0 mph. Depths 25 and down to as the fish went down. Caught fish all over the North End of the lake. I actually caught more fish when I was turning to avoid people than went I just went straight. Ended 2 days of fishing with 11 fish.

Went back on the 27-28th only caught 6 in total but lost 8 fish!! Man that was frustrating!! Yes it is crowded and tough to navigate the boat launch and boats but I remembered to take it all in and have a positive attitude. Even when the Game Wardens, who gave me a ticket last year, asked to cut in front of me to retrieve their boat which had broken down.
CARPE DIUM

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