Lake Report: Fun In Class

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Sunday evening on the lake. The wind was kicking up so I paddled over to the protection of John's Cove. Tied on the Big Bomber and had a hookup after just a few casts. Not big, but these little fish are strong. They can give you what you crave.

I hadn't counted on a fly fishing class showing up. There were five men and three or four kids, and they all came paddling and rowing out into the channel. Got a little crowded. So I moved to the north end of the lower lake. This is a good spot, and I hadn't been there in awhile, so I was glad to go. And it was in the lee of the wind.

The fish were up and working, and I caught a little one right away. Meanwhile the fly fishing class was nymphing with indicators, calling out what they were using ("I got a hit on the Copper John!" "Really? I got a hit on a Flashback Pheasant Tail." "Really? A Flashback PT?") and coaching their young charges ("You gotta paddle out farther, you're still in the weeds. There you go. Give it a twitch now and then; you gotta give it some action.") and the kids seemed to be having a good time in spite of it all.

A brief shower blew through.
It didn't slow the fish down. They were still all over the Bomber. I caught a better one.
Then one a little better than that.
And then the best fish of the day.
I ended up catching seven fish, mostly small, but all lively and intent on getting into the weeds. The two bigger ones both took line off the reel and gave me a couple jumps. All in all, it was one of my better evenings.

The class had gotten off to a slow start (I heard all about every bump, hit, and hookup, as well as the size of the few fish caught) but to the credit of the kids they were still hard at it at dusk when I paddled through on my way back to the truck. And the fish were keeping them busy.

Hope they had as much fun as I did.