The shrub steppe region can be hot as a furnace or bitter cold. Sometimes I call it The Vortex due to the ease of losing bearings and ending up in a random farmer’s driveway. But the shoulder seasons are inhabitable and @Irafly and I were itching to go explore. Thanks to the Sprague Motel & RV park for a clean place to home base for the trip.
Day 1 we visited two lakes and put a combined total of 6 fish in the net. There were lots of people out on a gorgeous early spring day and nobody was dialed in. So it goes in the early season. Lakes change from year to year (and day to day). Lack of food was not an issue as we encountered a boatman hatch, chironomids, and observed scuds in the shallows.
The few fish we found were healthy.
Ira brought enchiladas and a package of good sausage for dinner around 9pm after a daylight to dusk effort.
Day 2 we planned to try two different lakes but I was inspired to switch the starting place. Nice drive in the morning after breakfast at the Viking in Sprague. Highly recommended but it’s a one woman show; settle in, it’s worth the wait.
Arrived at the lake to find a couple others preparing to launch and a dead rainbow in the brush
. The ice was just recently off here and there was a steady breeze to keep us bundled. We explored the closer end shallows to start but didn’t find any cruisers. We moved out to the transition zone out from 5’ to 15’ and hit a couple trolling leeches. Found a nice bucket to anchor up in and started finding a few. Not hot and heavy but it was clear that pods were moving through every 10 minutes or so. Some good rainbows here. And lots of olive colored foods in the sample.
Once the bite waned we hauled anchors and explored for a bit. Quite a few folks out but not many nets out or bent rods. We moved to another area we hoped would have a similar transition zone where fish would move through. It took some searching but we zeroed in on a spot and anchored up. The W had been steady up to this point but now started swirling….always a challenge to manage. Again it wasn’t hot right away but within 10-15 minutes a pod moved in and our indicators did their job. Once we made some adjustments this bite was steady and lasted the rest of the afternoon. We did not try Lake B.
Day 1 we visited two lakes and put a combined total of 6 fish in the net. There were lots of people out on a gorgeous early spring day and nobody was dialed in. So it goes in the early season. Lakes change from year to year (and day to day). Lack of food was not an issue as we encountered a boatman hatch, chironomids, and observed scuds in the shallows.
The few fish we found were healthy.
Ira brought enchiladas and a package of good sausage for dinner around 9pm after a daylight to dusk effort.
Day 2 we planned to try two different lakes but I was inspired to switch the starting place. Nice drive in the morning after breakfast at the Viking in Sprague. Highly recommended but it’s a one woman show; settle in, it’s worth the wait.
Arrived at the lake to find a couple others preparing to launch and a dead rainbow in the brush
. The ice was just recently off here and there was a steady breeze to keep us bundled. We explored the closer end shallows to start but didn’t find any cruisers. We moved out to the transition zone out from 5’ to 15’ and hit a couple trolling leeches. Found a nice bucket to anchor up in and started finding a few. Not hot and heavy but it was clear that pods were moving through every 10 minutes or so. Some good rainbows here. And lots of olive colored foods in the sample.Once the bite waned we hauled anchors and explored for a bit. Quite a few folks out but not many nets out or bent rods. We moved to another area we hoped would have a similar transition zone where fish would move through. It took some searching but we zeroed in on a spot and anchored up. The W had been steady up to this point but now started swirling….always a challenge to manage. Again it wasn’t hot right away but within 10-15 minutes a pod moved in and our indicators did their job. Once we made some adjustments this bite was steady and lasted the rest of the afternoon. We did not try Lake B.
