Well Saturday I finally got to take the 3rd of 3 kids in the neighborhood who wanted to go fishing with me. The weather, though initially forecast to be quite nice, ended up being cloudy with occasional sprinkles. We chose Panther Lake because it's a very nice lake, with shoreline patches of homes and undeveloped stretches, and has a nice stocking of rainbow trout and a few nice bass, to boot! This 13 yo boy wanted to catch fish but he also wanted to cast, so bass was a good target.

I suggested trolling to start the day off early with 2-3 trout, and the fish didn't disappoint! We quickly got into nice 11-12 inch fish. With that under the belt, we started at the SW shore, moving clockwise, casting Rapalas into docks and overhang. We covered about 1/4 of the lake without any action, so decided to still fish off the bottom, for some larger trout. In a variety of lakes lately, every fish I'd seen caught that wasn't a stocker in size, all seemed to be caught on the bottom, with power bait. About 20-30 minutes of this was unproductive so we switched back to trolling and had limits in no time. We each kept 2, electing to return anything that was not 12" or more.

The wind was picking up and the sky didn't seem to promise anything better so before leaving, I suggested we cast the shore of the small island to try for bass once again. Well, still no luck and then a lure ended up on in the brush on the island. I could see it and there was a fallen log in the water to nearby the lure, so we held onto the log and I climbed out. Balance, balance up the log to just below the lure then a step off into the brush to get it, except someone forgot to tell the brush to have land under it. Down through 4-5 feet of brush into a foot of water, and on my butt I go. I'm not sure how much laughing went on behind me, but he was considerate, not making it loud enough for me to hear! After standing up, I was now close enough and retrieved my lure.

Back into the boat for a very uncomfortable drive to the launch and then home, about 50 minutes away, without a change of clothing. Later that evening, after drying out, the boy came by and we cleaned and filleted the trout, before vacuum sealing and freezing them. I had brought some smoked trout out in the boat and that's how he wanted his done!

fshnjon

5/29/2013 12:28:00 PM

Kudos to you , the neighborhood go-to fishin guy. Not many would take the time too take a youngster fishing . A role model for us all here on Wa Lakes !!

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