Up until the last week or so, everything here has been frozen or flowing too high for my liking. Things finally started thawing with the heat wave that came through. I checked the local park lake at the beginning of the week and saw this:


There was a couple feet around the most of the lake with open water, mainly on the North end. The South end was still frozen up to the shore with plenty of snow still on the ground. It was strange walking around in a t-shirt in 60 degree weather with snow an the ground and a frozen lake in front of me. I decided to check the river that flows along the side of the lake, but it was muddier than usual and flowing pretty hard. I did see one small sunfish there but it wasn't worth stringing up the rod.

Decided to go back late Friday after class to see if things were any better. Some of the reports on a local site were that there was enough open water to fish in some spots. I didn't expect to catch much, but it's been a long winter and some casting practice would be nice. The lake is mostly full of undersized panfish, some good sized bass, and it gets stocked twice a year with rainbows. I figured I might get lucky and find some bluegill that had moved up into the warmer water that was clear of ice.

As I walked around the lake a saw quite a few dead fish along the shore, mostly still under ice that had drifted in. They all looked to be trout so I was wondering if any of them survived the winter since some were pretty good sized fish. I walked up to the North end and I saw someone with a spinning rod make a few casts and move on from the first big open area. When I got there I stood up in the ridge and watched for a while and saw some surface activity so I decided to rig up the rod and see what happened. I still had a leader and tippet on there from last year so I just stuck with it and tied on a size 18 beadhead pheasant tail and made a few casts. It took a bit to get the rhythm back but I eventually got the line out where I wanted it. After a couple casts I saw a fish chase the fly bit miss it a couple times. Made a few more casts and then there were two shapes circling and chasing. Eventually one of them took it, first fish of the year and it only took 10 minutes or so. It was a little rainbow that had made it through the winter but it wasn't in very good shape. Some marks on the body and a pretty deformed tail. Not sure if one of the big bass got a hold of him or if he was born that way but he was still alive when a lot of other fish didn't make it.

The body:


And the tail:


Of course my luck wouldn't last, as I was unhooking this guy I heard some thunder and before I got him off and ready to cast again I saw some lightning and heard another rumble so I decided it was time to head home. First trip of the year was way too short but I can't complain with the results. That's the first rainbow I've pulled out of that lake on a fly. I've had lots of follows and some missed takes, but I could never get one aside from the little two inch fry I occasionally toyed with. Hopefully the rest of the year goes this well aside from the weather. Can't wait to get back out, but I have finals Monday, Tuesday and Thursday so it might be a little while before that can happen.