In-laws are headed for home and I am left alone. Time to break out the fly rod and do some serious fishing now. Blue Lake (near Oroville) is a slightly alkali lake with very clear blue-green water. It has some nice Lahontan strain cutthroats; locals tell me some go up to 10 pounds.

I trolled around the lake going as deep as I could with a big black leech, but I couldn't dredge up any of the monsters. Went back to a couple of shallow areas where I had seen some nice 18 inchers taking Callabeatis mayflies off the surface and did OK on an imitation. Caught two (or three if you want to count the self-release near the boat). Broke off a couple of others due to wind knots or ineptitude (well, I guess that's the same thing). These are gorgeous fish, deep reddish purple sides with red cheeks and throat slashes. They aren't very acrobatic like rainbows, but they don't come in easy. Hope to try again next year for the lunkers.

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