Brookie Lake Report: Your Lucky Stars

One more evening trip to close out June. You drive past Trout Lake and down the rutted road through the pines to Brookie Lake. As you expected, this shallow lake is already weeded up. A man and his wife have been fishing from the one place on the bank with access to open water. They have a stringer of brookies, so you know the fish are still in there.

They leave and you try their spot, but the wind is blowing strong right in your face. So you launch the tube and make your way through the weeds.

You fish the pocket water between weed beds. You're throwing a red bead head leech, and you have to account for the wind to hit the target, and start the strip immediately to stay above the weeds.

The first fish feels like you're snagged on a weed, and you yank him out of the water before realizing it's a fish. Feisty little guy.

You tie on an elk hair caddis. A fish bumps it and drowns it. While you're stripping in for the next cast the fish of the day slams it. They're all feisty.

The moon rises and the wind calms a bit. You think for a moment that it's starting to rain, but it's rises, hundreds of them, dimpling the surface.

Minnows. The lake is full of them. You can't find a brookie for the life of you. You've switched to a tiny midge dry, and you can't keep the minnows away from it.

You make your way to the spillway channel. There are bigger, splashy rises right at the lip of the spillway.

They're brookies.

You peer down the spillway. The outlet stream is surprisingly wide and long. Next time you'll come ready to bushwhack and stream fish. You've already heard the stories: a 16 inch brookie taken out of there.

Dusk has settled in and bats and mosquitoes are out as you paddle leisurely to the take out. You pick up one more brookie on the way.

You look up at the moon and thank your lucky stars for the chance to have an evening like this.