Well, Dad and I hit this lake about 9:30. Not many folks there. There were hatches of dark colored caddis near the shores, along with egg laying adults hitting the water, but very few rises.
A quick chat with a regular indicated he felt there would be "nuthin hapn'n until evenin'" Dad and I tied on some wollybuggers and started trollin.
The day was beautiful. We drug flies around a couple hours with just a few hits. On spot I passed I got a hard hit so I trolled back over it. I hooked up with something large. I had been snagging the bottom occasionally and that is what I thought had happened. My line stopped suddenly. I moved my rod to set the hook but nothing happened. My rod just bent over and my fly seemed to be snagged. I pulled up a bit to test it and see if it was just weeds I could pull through but it was solid! It felt like a big log! I pulled harder on just my line and it seemed to move up a bit, then sink again. I was going to just break it off when it moved away slowly, then something happened, the log started stripping line out real fast! Darn if I didn't hook a big fish, probably a Brown. Well, after one run the big Brown decided enough was enough and with one quick move it snapped my 3x leader!
I trolled back past the same spot again after tying on another Bugger and I caught a nice 15" Brown. Not as big as the one I lost, but fun!
After that I got 4 Rainbow on a Carey Special variation and it was time to go home and BBQ in Portland.
I sure don't have the lake "figured out" by any means, but i don't think it is impossible to have fun there! A great time Dad and I had!
Good luck to All!