Started the morning fishing at Deer Lake again with no luck, so I headed back down to Blue Lake. Hope you don't mind another report, but the fishing has been so good and consistent I'm having a ball trying stuff out. Started out really cold, so I fished fly's with a spin rod 5' behind a casting float. Caught some fish with both black and olive wooly buggers retrieved slowly. I did this 'cause I hate cleaning guide ice. I broke and had this Sage repaired about 1990, I grabbed it just above the furl in the middle and reached out, between the reel weight and the line pulling, ice cleaning, it broke. Still my fave rod though. Anyway when I changed rods I went to a bead head prince nymph. This was the fly of the day. While the buggers and heather nymph did OK the prince, and a standard copper john, were the best today. Also, a non-bead head did not do as well. It was important it fell somewhat quickly to get the fishes attention. Unweighted flies fell too slowly to get much love. A 2-4 pull strip to lift the fly, then let it fall. Almost all fish came on the fall. The little new ones are learning to hit food with their tail, then circle back to get it. I hooked 2 of the poor guys in the belly. After a hit, let it sit, they will circle back to get it. Sometimes takes a little jiggle to re-ignite them. I was fishing droppers for part of the day. I had a prince and copper john on. A bigger one took the price, then about 20' from shore an excited little one flashed up to take the copper. What fun, but a tangle ensued trying to let them both go. There was no wind and only 2-4 other people on the water.
One guy was working the Marengo area for steelhead, he saw two holding but hasn't got one yet this season. Two guys were also working the Touchet near the state park. It's time if you want to chase. I may do some but with fishing like today, why? I like lots of fish, even if their not huge.

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