The TroutTamer: Pass Lake

Met up with Noah at Pass Lake today to get in an afternoon of fishing. A beautiful day, with plenty of sun to keep us warm. We didn't get on the water until about 1:30pm, and ended up fishing for about 3 1/2 hours. Given the recent talk on the board about throwing some "meat" at some of the aggressive fall browns, we tied on some large buggers throughout the day and pounded the shorelines nearest the boat launch. I started off with a big white Zonker and trailed a smaller black leech. Noah worked a pretty big, green, flashy bugger. Not much more than a minute of pushing off from shore, Noah hooked into a pretty nice sized Rainbow, but it popped off after a decent fight. I saw it roll on the surface, and it looked to be 18"+. We continued to work the shorelines, both of us mixing up our presentations with various strips. Noah had a few hits and then landed a small rainbow on his big, green bugger. I had a few hits as well and then landed a 13" rainbow on my black leech. We then worked the opposite shoreline and had a double hook-up. Mine was a small 12" bow on the black leech, but Noah landed a nice 19" rainbow on his super-fly. (Sorry, didn't get a pick. Noah didn't realize I had a camera until after he released it -- doh!) It was quiet for a while after that -- a few hits here and there. Noah lost his super-fly on a snag, so we both decided to mix up our fly selection. He went with a double-bugger rig, both green and flashy. I decided to go with a simple olive Seal Bugger, around size 10. Towards the last half hour of fishing, we decided to hit the same shoreline that we had the double hook-up and quite a few hits. Noah ended up snagging his line, so I stopped to wait and stripped my Seal Bugger back to me convincingly -- BLAM! Fish on! I could tell this one had a bit more girth, and suspected it may be a brown, as it kept trying to escape by diving straight down. Indeed, as I drew it closer, a nice golden tint started to surface. A nice, fat 19" brown, my first from Pass Lake: