I got up there Sunday night. I saw a big cinnamon bear right on the side of the road by the turn off to the lookout. He went for a tree, put his paws on it but then ran off 50 feet or so, looked back at me and casually walked away. They were working on the road into jenkins grading it and such. There were a lot of cows and I counted 4 bulls. They were coming down to the ends of the points and into the cars at cow. They seemed to want to rub around on peoples trucks. Fortunately they only licked mine and didn't leave any scratches.

Fished monday-today sat the 17th, 6 days. I fished from fugawee to mosquito. I caught fish every day with all fish 16" or better. I mostly prowled the shorelines every where I went as there were more damsels there and more fish. Best day (mon) was a bakers dozen landed with a few more missed grabs by dinkers, landed 5 after 4 pm. Most days there was a significant drop off in the fishing after 11 and as early as 9:30-10 when the wind would come up. Any breeze put a quick halt to any risers. I paddled (thu) starting at 11:00 am from fugawee over to freeman down one side of freeman and up the other, around to mosquito prowling the shoreline(looking for damsels and snails) and I didn't see any damsels swimming for that entire paddle. Zero. Zilch. Fished south of cow, along the west shore mostly. I saw few damsels nymphs swimming anywhere all week. No one I talked to saw many, some didn't see any at all. I saw Barely a half dozen swimmers most days and just 3-4 swimmers a day on average. On monday I fished from 8 am to 6 pm. I got fish all day on and off. After 4 pm I landed 5 and lost 3, between 4-6pm on a particular spot. That was not to repeat itself as I tried it a few more days around those times. Most days I fished 8-5, 8-4. I caught fish every day. Today Sat I fished 7-12. 3 fish didn't have any parasites. One was 21" and clean a real nice fish. I hooked 2 nice <<size>> fish in the lip that began hemorrhaging blood out their gills and bled to death. One of the fish had part of its gill cover eaten away and a big hole(1/4") in its side. I looked into their gills and it was filled with gill maggots and their gills were a mess with parts missing. All fish I caught were 16" or better with many around 18-19. They all fought ok (none into my backing yet this year) except for the two that were really massively infested. They dropped the water level a bit more and as of thu I finally found a few weed beds starting to come through the surface straight out from cow and some south of cow. Prior to that, Mon-wed there were no weed beds coming to the surface that I could see/find anywhere. There was only a minor trickle of damsel nymphs all week, but the fish were very willing to eat a fake one except when they were on the midges. When I found fish hard on the midges I tried the damsel but got few takes. I'd put on a midge/callibaetis and got more fish. I saw most fish rising to small midges 8-9:30 or so and slashing/gulping the occasional callibaetis dun/spinner. That was short lived and any risers would stop rising as soon as a breeze hit the water. That happened daily around 9:30-10. It really got tough for everyone after 11. Everyone I talked to caught at least a few fish, reporting fish from 12-19". Some people told me they didn't see any damsels. After 11 it really got beautiful out there at that time and afternoons were really nice with the sun on the water. I went for a swim daily. On monday I counted 3 damsel nymphs swimming and 3 climbing up my boat for the day. That was roughly to continue for the rest of the week with a bit more on thu and fri. I found more bugs swimming close to shore and climbing up the bank(and onto my boat) with only a few anywhere else. Yesterday I saw the most bugs maybe a half dozen swimmers and I had about that many climb up my boat and hatch. Today sat we saw few bugs swimming anywhere at all around cow/fugawee. The people I talked to all week reported similar lack of damsels anywhere. I saw a half dozen or so blood midges on the surface fri afternoon while paddling back from mosquito, that was in the middle of the lake. If you go don't expect anything more than a trickle of damsels if that. Certainly nothing even remotely resembling a damsel hatch.

Get on the water early. It dies early. When it does try a callibaetis with a size 18' zebra midge trailer. After 11 try an intermediate with a wiggle tail or damsel 6 feet deep. You can catch fish but it is very slow.

I did not see one snail anywhere. I went looking for them in the afternoon after 11 as I went for a long paddle looking for damsels, weed beds and some exercise. I went to a place I saw some last summer. They were not there. They have vanished. I have not seen one snail yet this year from fugawee to mosquito.

Oh yeah. I had a fish cruise past in 2 feet of water, 10 feet from the bank swim right next to and along my flyline(I didn't dare pick up) about 20 feet of flyline, and the entire length of my leader tippet and eat my bug. I thought no way this fish would eat my damsel after seeing all that flyline and leader. But it did. Nice 19" fish not too badly chewed up by parasites.

One more thing to add. It was odd because the few damsels I saw were very early 8-9:30 and then they stopped. I never saw one swimming any day after 11.