Things are changing again. Firstly, the elephant in the room. There is a giant moon outside. It seems to rise at sunset and set at sunrise. It's huge. It glows like a lava lamp through my windows. I wake up in the middle of the night and think I'm late for work. Anyway. Now that THAT is out of the way, let's get to fishing. It's tough. The bite is slow. The quality of fish continues to be more diminutive than the previous weeks. That of course being said, when you are catching 6, 7, 8, 9, 10+ pound fish, a 4 or 5 pound fish starts feeling small. The net is only going out once an hour or so. A good bite if you're on it could be every 30 minutes, but those numbers aren't sustainable. It seems like everyone has left the dam. They're scattered around the lake. Boat pressure is increasing. More people are enjoying this incredible fishery and wearing t-shirts in the afternoon as long as you have a windshield boat or better. I did hear some talk about some more snow coming this Monday. It's still 4,500' feet and anything can change, but my goodness it's beautiful.

Ok, for the bite. We are still catching morning fish at Big Cove to the A-Frame. The bite basically tanks as soon as the sun hits the water. A group of people have moved to the Red Banks on the west side and are trying to produce fish there. I know of some beautiful rainbow trout coming from the west side in deep water. There are actually a few salmon coming in. That's pretty amazing considering how poor the Chinook fishery has been for the last couple of years. A few talented anglers have been picking up fish again on the east shore at the Dorado Inn. I've seen boats trolling fast but the production seems to continue by going slow and pulling smelt imitations about 25' to 30' down the wire with 100' setbacks.

If you are bank fishing, the Hamilton Branch is loaded with awesome fish. I was up at the pens feeding with clients yesterday and my graph was lighting up with big, fat fish. I don't fish in the Hamilton Branch. It's a big lake. There is a lot of water out there. And, I don't need to be in there targeting fish in my boat when it's one of the few places a guy can enjoy the day from the bank. I highly recommend getting there if you want to try your luck on the fly or maybe a sliding bobber rig in the middle of the channel about 15' to 23' deep. Good luck.

The bass fishermen are out. They don't appear to be enjoying themselves a lot. I haven't heard much about small mouthed bass. These fish are going to be coming into the beds soon and should start eating at any moment.

Good luck out there.