My wife, Boni and I took our new toy, a 12' Lund out for it's shakedown cruise on Howard Lake. Took our time, got everything right... arrived at the lake a bit after 8:00 AM, in the water and fishing by 8:30. The WDFW launch is extremely shallow, so took awhile to get the boat off the beach! Slightly overcast to begin the day, sun burning away the clouds quickly. Air temp at 58 degrees at outset, water temp off the boat at about 10' was 68 degrees!
Began trolling with flashers and various hardware, tried flies, spoons, wedding rings, Dick Nites... hot lure off the bat was the Phoebe Fighting Fish, in silver. Boni caught the first two on the Phoebe (C&R)... then I caught two on a red & green wedding ring with a silver smile blade/nightcrawler, (C&R). Handed that rod off to Boni and she caught two more, one with the trailing hook in the gills, so we kept it. I caught one on a frog Dick Nite (C&R), then Boni caught another with the hook in the gills and bleeding profusely, so kept it. By 9:30 the sun was out in it's full glory, and the bite tailed off. Still had hit after hit both on the wedding ring/worm, and on the Phoebe, lost at least a dozen that jumped and threw the hook on the way to the boat. None of the trips that were planted earlier, but all the Rainbows were in the 11" to 12" range and very chunky. Released one that would have gone 13".
Saw one other boat on the water, fellow fly-fishing, saw him land one and lose several as they jumped and threw his fly... fishing chironomids under a strike-indicator. Saw another fisherman trolling worms from his float tube, saw him land one.
Sun was getting hotter, and the bite was falling off... had to go deeper to get hits, so we left the lake a bit before noon. Thrilled with the performance of the boat, the electric motor worked flawlessly. Plenty of room in the boat... just a great day!
Props to the two fishermen who were plunking at the launch... the really, really big one introduced himself as "Sasquatch"... gave us a hand getting the boat on the trailer. PTL!

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