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Clear Lake, Tanwax Reports

893 views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Teeg Stouffer 
#1 ·
Saturday morning had a so-long-for-the-year trip to Clear Lake, the one in Pierce County north of Enumclaw.

It was a gorgeous outing - Ranier was clear as a bell, framed between the hills at the far side of the lake when I arrived at 7:30. I had the place to myself when I showed up, one other boat turned up while I was there.

Some rising fish dimpled the surface right by the boat ramp as I was unloading the boat, but just after launching, a little breeze riffled the surface and they stopped. I tied on a black bunny bugger and started trolling down the north shoreline.

I was in my little 8' flatbottom, which is definitely different from trolling in my tube, which has been how I'd fished most of the summer. I really struggled to hook the fish that were striking. Missed about 7 strikes, some of them really strong strikes. I decided that something must be awry, so stripped in the fly and sharpened the hook. Missed two more good hits before I developed a clever (how humble of me) over-the-knee technique that let me get the hook set before I dropped the oars. Later added a little zug bug dropper which turned up some little fellas, but the bigger fish all hit the bugger. Wound up with 10 fish to hand, the biggest 14", and I missed a few more. The best little frenzy was a good pod of fish in about six or eight feet of water on the south shoreline - produced four fish from one spot. The best (although not the biggest) was the last one of the day - a great 13" jumper that came as I was trolling back to the boat ramp. He cleared the water by 2 feet on his first jump, and made four full breaches before he came to hand and was released.

I was grateful for barbless hooks - on releasing one fish, it somehow got hooked on my front fly as it swam away. The trailing fly was still in my hand, and the hook immediately lodged right into my index finger. The fish was hooked again, and so was I! With every charge he made (and he had a lot of vigor) he shook the hook deeply into my finger. It was one of those blinding, no-thought-as-to-how-to-handle-the-situation panicked moments. After three good, deep charges, I gave a swift tug and broke him off. I was free, but expected him to be hooked on the top fly. He wasn't, once the tension was off of him from my hand, the hook came loose from him, too. Fortunately, I slipped the hook right out of my finger - all praise to the barbless hook!

Sunday afternoon I squeezed in a couple hours on Tanwax lake. It wasn't exactly the same kind of peaceful, productive outing. A group of teenage girls was butt-rockin' out to AC/DC on shore, (actually, just "You Shook Me All Night Long" over...and over...) the fish didn't exactly cooperate, and when I did find some eager little risers, a boat came through and put them down. Best moment there: one little trout made a vigorous, shaking leap out of the water to nail my emerger. (For all his gusto, I still didn't get a hook into him).

With a little luck, I'll get out to say "see you 'till next year" to a couple more spots before Friday.

Hope you all find time to do the same,

:thumb

Teeg.

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