We hit Badger about 8am and spent the better part of the morning throwing everything we had with little action. Spinners, roostertails, rattlebaits, Rapalas... you name it. We had a few small takers, but nothing like what we'd hoped/expected. We battled pretty strong winds all day, but were glad to have it -- it blew all that crappy rainy weather out of there, after all!

We anchored out of the wind about 15' from shore to break for lunch, and on a whim threw some nightcrawlers over the side (last minute gas station purchase when my buddy had to replace a forgotten pair of sunglasses) while we ate. We were in the fish! They came in spurts, but were worth the wait! We came home with 3 really nice rainbows, two @ 14" and one @ 12". The 14's were nice and fat.

Anyway, we had to stop because we'd caught our 5 fish limit on hook & bait so we went up to the west end for some bass fishing before we had to race home. Caught a few small ones in the reeds, but no luck by the pads. We didn't have time to rig up anything fancy so we just tossed some buzzbaits and spinners. We were off the lake by 4, just as the crowds started rolling in. Don't know if they slept in, waited for the wind to die down (wouldn't you know it, it was doing just that as we left??) or what. But we were very happy with our fat, firm trout caught the "old school" way.

Badger is far and away my favorite lake, wish I could find the same success on Newman or Liberty or some other closer lake, it'd save me a ton on gas and drive time!

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