Fish Lake Report: Super Moon

You give Trout Lake a break and stop up the road at Fish Lake. It's another hot afternoon.

You're curious about these Fish Lake trout. Will they take a muddler in this heat? You start down the long shoreline of summer.

You find one trout who will take the muddler, on a dead drift about ten feet off the bank. He gives a fine account of himself.

You keep the muddler on for awhile, but nothing else comes to it. You try a Damselator, with no luck.

You tie the muddler back on and kick up to the west end, fishing as you go.

This was an active place the evening you were here before. Now there are some rises here and there. You put on a lighter tippet and try a variety of small dries. You get a few swirls, and a couple of hookups that come undone: small fry. Then, you're stripping in your Cinnamon Ant for another cast, and a bigger fish hits it hard and is hooked. But before you can react he bolts and is gone, fly, tippet, and all.

You try to find a fish like that again, but finally give up and head back down the lake.

Then you notice the moon. Oh yeah. Super Moon on the way.

This moon, some 99% full, is a pretty nice preview. You decide to be right back here tomorrow night for the official full moon.

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So, the very next evening, there you are.

You go back to the shorelines with a muddler, and hook and lose a small fish. It's a beginning.

The sun goes down in the hot, smoky sky.

Then, for awhile, the fish come alive. They're rising and jumping all down the middle of the lake.

Most are tiny, and you catch them one after another on several different flies. But there are bigger fish all around you. They sound like someone tossed a cantaloupe into the lake. But you just keep catching the little guys.

The activity slows way down just as the blood red tip of the moon pushes above the ridge. So you settle back and watch the smoky moon rise.

The smoke dims its brightness. But it's still super.