The day was scheduled as a hunt for big lingcod out in the straights but when I got up at 3:00 am, looked at the wind forecast I pulled the plug on the trip. Instead I swapped out ball mounts and boats. The dirty work done I kicked back and waited for my wife to wake up and advise her of the change in plans.

The new plan was to do a leisurely departure and head to a local lake for a little fly fishing out of the drift boat. Our leisurely departure turned into a late morning launch at Heart Lake. When we launched there were numerous groups fishing from the shore and about 10 boats on the lake. Unfortunately, the fishing prospects were reported as poor at best. Not to be discouraged we pushed forward with the launch and we were fishing in no time.

Although we had conventional gear on board our plan was heavily in favor of fly fishing. We were both set up with two 9’ 5 weight rods. One a sinking tip fly line and one full float, they are our go to for 90% of our fly fishing. At the business end of our sinking tip rigs was a weighted or bead head olive wooly bugger and the floating rigs set up with a 12’ tapered leader, sliding indicator and some form of chironomid or another. My plan was to troll the buggers around until we got into fish or saw fish rising or puddled up.

The plan was solid, it wasn’t long before we were into our first fish. Karen is really getting the hang of this fly fishing thing and kicked fish butt. Actually, she kicked my butt Sunday also. In my defense though; since many of our fish were caught trolling the wooly buggers while I was on the sticks, I missed a lot of bites. We did hook a few chironomid fish where I seemed to have an edge in the numbers war.

From the first fish on we had pretty solid action and I don’t think we went 5 or 10 minutes between bites. Lots of this year’s stockers or ½ pounders and a hand full of nicer hold overs. After a lengthy, nail biter fight Karen got the big fish of the day with a beautifully 18” rainbow.

Our fishing trip was one of the best 5-hour adventures we have ever enjoyed. We kept 5 fish but did not count all the fish that we caught and released. Can’t ask for better, nonstop action on our fly rods! On the way home we hit Bastion Brewing for burgers and a few cool ones. It was the icing on an already perfect day.

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