Wow! This place is unbelievable. This place is just teeming with life, from yellow eared slider turtles to rattlesnakes on the water...(yipes) But really, the most important aquatic lifeforms were the huge trout in this lake. Not knowing it, I picked up trout in all of the locations listed in the picture above (I was just looking for structure..) Anyway, I picked up 5 12-14" RB during the day off of size 8 damsel imitations. Actually, saying damsel is a little to specific, lets just say... Hook size: 8, (matching beadhead), thread olive 3/0, tail: olive maribou, body: green apple "streamborn" brand sparkle(?) chenille. Done. You should never be too specific..

I wanted to get a better perspective so I climbed up on 50-60' cliff shown in the picture and looked though the polarized glasses to find 20-30 large trout just grazing within my line of vision. You could see the whites of their mouths as they meandered in and about the "springs" area mentioned. You could see them in the middle of the lake. Man, they were everywhere. Besides being everywhere, and now being aware of their locations, I only managed to pick up 5 fish during the daytime, none exceeding 14". Every fisherman I talked to was landing fish on variety of patterns, so I cannot really tell you what was hot for everyone.

What I can say is that night fishing was just awesome. I Picked up four more fish, the rainbows averaging 18" and my best catch of the season, an appx. 27-29" (forget the 16" measured on my stripping apron, this girl went a good way across my tube, quite possibly the fish of a lifetime..), 6-8" tall brown trout caught off of Steve Probasco's Night Leech. It didn't take out a lot of line, but just hunkered down on the bottom, which played hell on my forearm! It would meander this way and that, but I would not come to the surface. I was just about to take the rod and switch hands, but she came up and I released her: "Nice. Now where the hell am I?" Spent the next 40 min getting myself lost in the dark. Real smart.

Luckily a nice guy by the name of Doc Plantz happened to light the way back to the launch for me. Thanks Doc, I owe you one.

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