Usually fish Lake Wilderness Derby for the trout opener with my kids. However, Fish Princess was with Mama Dawg on a Girl Scout outing and my son was playing trombone at a Husky baseball game.

That was all the excuse I needed to head east to one of my favorite lakes for some sunshine and rainbows (OK hoping for a brownie too). Camped at Sun Lakes State Park and fished Park Lake Saturday and Sunday mornings.

First one on the water Saturday morning. Headed for the south end of the lake and ran two lines with Flatfish plugs. F5 brown craw and F7 chrome started off the day. The chrome plug was getting bit while the trusty old brown craw was more or less ignored. I figured the fish were triggered by the bright flash so I switched out the brown craw rod for a rod with Orange/Gold Shasta Sling Blade and tequila sunrise wiggle hoochie. At first I tipped this rig with a bit of pink fire corn. This rig soon produced multiple hook-ups. After putting fish 2 & 3 in the boat I quit using bait so I could C&R for a while without exhausting my limit (had a plan to hunt kokes at Deep Lake in the evening, but that will be a separate report). Probably hooked 15 - 20 all-in for the morning and got all but a few to the boat. Had planned on keeping just the 3 however 1 was badly hooked and bloody so he went into the box too.

Funny thing happened while I was landing and unhooking the last fish. The wind blew me in a circle and over my other line which was still trolling. It got fouled in the kicker and cut off my line. I was bummed because that rod was pulling the brown craw plug that has been so deadly on big browns the last couple years. Then suddenly I see a trout jump twice violently trying to throw my plug. I still figure that's the last I'll see of the plug, but when I pull the kicker out of the water to fire the main and head for the ramp I notice my line is still raveled-up with some of it trailing into the water. I reach down and grab the line and start hand lining it back to the boat and the fish is still on. Even my motor hooked a fish! I C&R the unwitting RBT, glad to have my plug back. Left the water with 4 in he box.

Sunday I didn't even bother with bait. Pulled an easy limit plus a few more C&R along the way, mostly on the sling blade and hoochie combo and was off the water with fish cleaned and headed for home by about 0900.

All fish were cookie cutter yearlings. No carryovers for me this time, which is unusual based on past experiences. I've fished later in the season previously so maybe that is a factor in the incidence of smaller and more eager biters encountered this trip.

Great to fish in the sunshine after so many gray rainy days on the west side this spring!

Tight Lines!

Fish Dawg

---