My first day of fishing after being stuck on a ship for the past four months. I am happy to be back and in the fish. I arrived at Martha Lake around noon and was surprised by the "crowd" of five boats. There were two float tubers who got blanked, because they couldn't figure the "hatch"--that is, the right woolly bugger. I found out the issue was otherwise. To me, the lake was kind, having been possibly stocked earlier in the day, and giving up three fatties in the 14+ range. These were clearly hatchery releases, as the "squared-off" tails attested. Life in those concrete tanks and runways will do that. Oh well, but at least they were fat and even fairly scrappy fighters. Three being enough for me, I decided to call it a day. As I was loading out, I met Brad from Lake McMurray. He was the one who clued me in on the planting. He'd checked the lake recently and found no fish. While I was talking to him, he chucked in powerbait and ended up landing two in 15 minutes. Yes, there had been a planting. This was the popping of my previous illusion of fishing might. And I had thought my Thin-Mint Leech was the silver bullet! At least my first day fishing of the year was good. It's always nice to be back home.

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