I decided to try and work this lake again after having C&R'd that 16" on the 18th. On Wednesday, I revisited the same area where I caught that trout. Lo and behold, there was a trout doing some serious feeding in some shallows that had to have been no more than a foot or two. I took the time to tie on a Quigley Cripple emerger and cast it in the trout's feeding lane. It was no more than two seconds, and I had that trout on! Sad to say, in less than 15 seconds the hook came free--played it too hard. The bend of my rod seemed to suggest something of at least 14 inches. Anyway, I thought that surely I had put off the fish and spooked any others. Still, after collecting myself, I made another cast into the same feeding lane but more to one side. Again, another strike, but this one also didn't hold. After that, that stretch of shallows was definitely shut down.

The rest of the afternoon and into the evening turned out to be a waste of time. No fish, though I did fish into darkness trying to chase down a surface feeding trout. Actually, it was feeding just below the surface, but it was too dark and my hands were too cold to change flies.

Decided to return again the following afternoon. Trolling the shallows with my old black and olive bugger didn't pay off. Tried several other searching patterns to no avail. I did see one or two fish, over the whole of my time, rise to feed. What they were hitting on remained a mystery. I did get one--and only one--nibble on a white and grizzly hackle woolly bugger trolled near the bottom in deeper water. Then again, that might have been the bottom.

All I can say about Martha Lake is that there ARE fish there, but you have to first figure out what their feeding pattern is. Good luck with that.

Tight Lines!

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