Trout Lake Report: Turned On

You go back to the channel and the south end. Things were slow here the last time--which means things could turn on at any moment.

It's another beautiful, hot June day.

You get there early enough to try matching the damsel hatch. During the heat of the day fish key on the blue morsels.

You've tied up some flies that are more imitative than the damselator. You kick out of the access into the channel and a cloud of damsels. There are some fish working right there, so that's where you begin.

They like your imitation. Looks like someone threw the switch and turned the lake on.

You move down the channel into the south end.

You're targeting a couple of rainbows. You can tell they're rainbows because sometimes they come clean out of the water to get at the damsels. There's a rise up close to the bank and you put the fly in there and let it sit. There's a take--and what do you know? A nice brown.

You get one of the rainbows, too.

You're happy with the new damsel fly, but you need to figure out how to improve its floatability. You've already got some ideas.

It's time to switch to a muddler and work the long shoreline. You've tied up a new fly for the occasion. You kick over and start in John's Cove.

You get into the pleasurable rhythm of cast and strip, cast and strip, and not too far along you drop the fly into a little recess in the willows, and a hungry brown explodes on it.

And that's just the beginning. The lake stays turned on. The fish are turned on, too.

And, by the end of it, you're a little turned on yourself.