Ah, Amber! One of my former favorites! It can be tough to fish during the summer. The fish are there, trust me! Sounds to me like a timing thing in my experience. Truth be told, Amber's fish usually get most active around mid-day. I'd wager that I got 75% of my fish on that lake between 11:00 and 2:00, with most being caught on chironomids fished right on the bottom......straight across from the launch! The fish aren't huge as compared to say Medical's or Coffeepot's, with most being hard-charging 15-18" rainbows. There are cutts there also. A lot of folks fish damsel and dragon fly nymph patterns there and do real well. I don't know what the weather was like but Amber's fish are like most and hate hot, bright conditions.....especially on days as flat as glass. Don't get discouraged, your next trip could very easily be a 15-fish day. That's just Amber!

Ah, Amber! One of my former favorites! It can be tough to fish during the summer. The fish are there, trust me! Sounds to me like a timing thing in my experience. Truth be told, Amber's fish usually get most active around mid-day. I'd wager that I got 75% of my fish on that lake between 11:00 and 2:00, with most being caught on chironomids fished right on the bottom......straight across from the launch! The fish aren't huge as compared to say Medical's or Coffeepot's, with most being hard-charging 15-18" rainbows. There are cutts there also. A lot of folks fish damsel and dragon fly nymph patterns there and do real well. I don't know what the weather was like but Amber's fish are like most and hate hot, bright conditions.....especially on days as flat as glass. Don't get discouraged, your next trip could very easily be a 15-fish day. That's just Amber!

It is not just you. I was out there Saturday from noon til 5:00pm and it was quite slow. I basically covered the entire lake and the fish marked on the fish finder was very little. There were a few areas where I got readings, but they were scarce. Of the fish marked, they were lying at about 20-25 ', just above the well defined thermocline. I got a couple of good hits and was able to land two fish, one 15" Rainbow and a 16" Cutthroat. Both were good and healthy and fought fairly well. Also, there were a lot of adult Damsels flying close to the surface all over the lake and very few fish were going after them. This is unusual. Of the other fisherman on the lake, I did not see any landing any fish.
I am starting to believe that the fish per acre in Amber has been dropping off steadily for the last couple of years. Gone are the days of turning off the fish alarm sound because it drives you nuts to hear the continuous beeping. There were a couple of seasons a few years back where having a 30-40 fish/day was the norm. It was shortly after that when the Game Department felt there were too many fish in the lake for the food supply to support. They then decided to stop stocking the lake on a regular basis. There were several years that they did not stock any fish at all. I am going to go back through the lake stocking records and see when and how many fish have been stocked.
I don't feel that a barbless effects the ability to hook a fish. All of my flies are barbless and I believe that it is actually easier to embed the hook because of less resistance in the penetration than with a barbed hook. The key to keeping the fish on the hook is to keep the line taut.

I live in the Seattle area and will be making a family visit to Spokaloo soon.
Has it picked up at Amber lately?
Please say yes.