Went out to Rattlesnake for the first time with Mike Carey. I was a bit late getting to the launch after some unfortunate circumstances in the morning. Once I got there at 8:45AM, we launched the boat and began trolling streamers and nymphs. I used a size 8 olive carey wooley bugger with some crystal and Mike had on a purple bugger with crystal and a Montana nymph. Mike hooked 10 and kept a couple for dinner. I hooked 7 and let all mine go. They were all in the 8-11" range but Mike got one about 15" -- that was a sweet fish. We trolled pretty slow with Mike using fast-sinking fly line and I was using intermediate-sinking fly line at 1.75ips. It was pretty darn fun! I hadn't been out in this neck of the woods for years and was surprised at how low the water level is...when launching you have to go over the 4 large rocks down there. Mike gave me the first bumper sticker for WL.com and that is now proudly on my boat instead of my truck. The 7 fish I caught were between 8-10" it seemed, with Mike catching some of the larger fish. We also each had about 15-20 "nips" or "strikes" at the fly and missed them, or we'd have them on for about 5 seconds and they'd come off. Remember Rattlesnake is a special regs lake with single point barbless hooks only. I might be out there over the summer so if I see any illegals (powerbaiting, scented baits, etc) you will be called in to Fish and Game. Overall what a great time fishing with Mike; no one else on the lake except one other boat. We fished from around 8:45AM to 2:00PM all with flies. For me, olive was the name of the game. Mike pulled some tricks out of the box and scored some nice fish. I had one 14" holdover fish that came off after a nice leap that was pretty thick. Weather -- chilly, drizzle, 48F, and SW wind 5-15MPH which wasn't too bad, but made it quite cold. We'll be back again. The fish were active today.

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