Trout Lake Report: First Trip of September

September has opened up cool and wet. At the lake you gladly wear a jacket. August seems a long way away.

You're back at the channel, and your mission is to test the effectiveness of hopper flies.

You work through the channel and out into the north lake, casting the fly around weed beds and out in open water, without raising anything. Then you cast in to the shoreline and a fine Rainbow is waiting for you.

The rain arrives as you continue to explore.

You've decided to work the Drake Banks with your hopper flies. It has been some time since you were there. So you tie on the bead head Woolly Bugger and troll all the way down to the far western end.

You start back along the shoreline.

As you strip the hopper out from the bank and past a small weed bed there's a very hopperish take.

That's very encouraging. You continue on up the shoreline as the clouds thicken and a breeze kicks up.

There are fish tucked in along the shoreline. You get some follows and a miss. Finally you hook another one.

You have plenty of shoreline left to fish, but you realize you're running out of light, and that the breeze is quickly swelling into a gale. Is there a storm coming? You decide you'd better get back to the truck asap. You tow the hopper behind you and catch one more fish that makes the drag sing.

You give thanks for the fish and for a memorable first trip of September. More to the point, you give thanks for the present lack of lightning and torrential rain, and especially for the fact that the wind is with you and not against you.

Then you settle down to riding the waves in.