After doing some research i found an alpine lake (lindeman lake) ive been wanting to fish was ice free and fishable. I didnt get up early enough, by the time i drove out there and hiked up to the lake it was 11:30. Upon arriving i found fish plopping all over the lake, which was glass calm. I start pumping up my raft, getting everything ready. I get on the water and the wind started blowing.. The fish were still rising, but not as much as before, for the first hour i trolled a size 6 black bead head leech on a full floating line with 12' of #4 tippet. Not a sniff for about 1 hour of effort. So i decided to to switch up to a size 12 black beadhead chironomid , finally started to get a few hits and then shortly after landed one. Really nice fight for a 13 1/2" fish, it went airborne twice. After that the tempurature dropped significantly and the wind started howling. The fish stopped surfacing and biting and i went in packed it up and went home. At the end of the day, i realized my mistakes were A.) showing up late B.) using a general attractor pattern when the fish were clearly keyed in on chironomids. Although not a great day of catching, it was my first chironomid caught trout on the first chironomid i ever tied, so i am pleased with the results, however dismal they may be lol.

---