I fished Cooper Lake for the first time last Thursday evening and Friday morning with my Dad. Cooper Lake is one of those narrow, deep lakes that squeezes between two ridges. That topography factors into this report because it sure was a wind machine. No motors are allowed on the lake, so I explored in my rubber raft and really fought hard to paddle into the wind to reach the inlet end of the lake--about one mile of rowing as hard as I could to make about two miles an hour at best. Actually, it took me two hours to get there because I had to zig zag, and at times I pulled up to the shore to rest ten minutes and cast a Dick Nite and a worm. Mostly, though, I trolled as best I could as I tacked back and forth.

Anyhow, Thursday evening I caught one six-inch rainbow in a sheltered bay near a feeder stream and received several bites that seemed like small fish (spoon and worm). I also was visited by two otters there who treaded water as high as they could so that they could check me out, and I asked them where are all the fish and they snorted and swam a wide arc to avoid me. I sure hope they caught more fish than I did that evening. I also encountered an elk on shore that was spotlighted by a shaft of red light from the setting sun, and it looked really beautiful in that glow. I let the wind blow me back to the campground at the other end of the lake as I drifted a fly and spinner combination but caught nothing. I only took 15 minutes to be blown back.

I rowed back out on the lake about 5 am the next day. The wind had died down some but still was a nuisance. I trolled and drifted at the outlet end of the lake with a colorado spinner and worm and three split shot. At one part of the lake, a point of land makes the water very shallow even in the middle of the lake, then it deepens as one goes toward the outlet. There, in about 30-40 feet of water, as I trolled slowly, I received a good bite and found my hook had been stripped of its bait. I trolled through the same spot and had another worm stolen. On the third pass, I hooked and landed a beautiful 11-inch kokanee that fought like a stick. On the fourth pass, I snagged and lost my lure. I had told my dad I would be back in an hour so he could try some fishing, so at that point I oared back to the campground. However, when I landed there, he said he didn't feel like going out in the wind, and I decided I was through fighting the wind, too. But I believe that if I !
would have worked that hole I might have caught more kokanee because I understand that they travel in schools. But for now, I call myself Alamander One-Fish (it was delicious for dinner).

I do plan to return later this summer. Maybe the wind will be calmer. However, it was not blowing very hard on lake Cle Elum a few miles to the south, so I wonder when it is ever calm on Lake Cooper.

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