This was my first visit to Hayden Lake since my last report. Fishing on this lake, for me at least, has not improved, in fact it was the toughest day I've ever had out there.

Got on the water about 11:00 and was shocked to see that practically no one else was fishing it. The parking lot was almost empty, I had my choice of trailer parking spots which is very unusual for this crowded and congested launch.

I started about halfway between Yellowstone point and Windy point. Put two lines out on the riggers and headed toward Yellowstone point, then over to English point, then north along the shoreline to the top of the basin, then across and south down the other shore back to Yellowstone point, then across to English point again. In other words, I made a big lap around the basin.

In that entire trip, which took about 5 hours at 1.4mph, I got one bite and it didn't stick. I tried several different rigs. The one bite I got came on a pink hoochie tipped with shoepeg corn, which has always been more or less my go-to rig on this lake. He hit at 35 feet which is about where my fishhawk showed 54 degrees. I tried lots of different depths over the course of the day though, trying to scare up a bite.

I was pretty discouraged by now and figured I'd just troll west and if it was still dead, I'd pack it up and head for the launch. No sooner had I rounded English point and headed west when a pole went off. I boated the beautiful fish pictured. It's not the longest fish I've ever pulled out of this lake at only 14.5 inches, but it was good and fat and just beautiful. At that moment I finally felt like the day wasn't a total loss.

Keeping with the adage of never leaving fish to go find fish, I did a u-turn and went back over the spot. Banged a little one. Pulled another u-turn and went back over it and banged a medium sized one. Went back over it two more times with no bites. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I trolled a half mile west or so, to where that little marina is on the north shore, with no bites, pulled up my gear and headed for the launch.

Last year it was taking me an average of 5-6 hours to limit out on this lake. This year it's been a lot tougher, for me at least. Judging by how few other guys were out there, I'm guessing I'm not the only one struggling.

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