Not quite a "Pyramid Report" but it does involve Cutthroats !!!!

Being overly-saturated with the Covid crap, and dis-heartened with the rioting and looting, and watching Jeff C's shad reports, and all of the rest of you guys spanking the shad..............I decided to take a day trip "somewhere" for a change of scenery from the local ponds I've been hitting up.

I gave consideration to Martis, Spooner, Indian Creek Reservoir, and Red Lake.

The local buzz around here was that Red had thawed a couple of weeks ago but the fishing reports were "spotty".

I watched the weather trend and today appeared to be the best day this week to give Red a try..........

So, pulled out of the driveway this morning at 8:40 with my float tube, fins, pump, and all the other miscellaneous things I thought I would need.
A quick stop in Minden to top off the gas tank then it was "Red Lake or Bust" !!!

On the way up, Hope Valley was rather desolate and I couldn't see anyone fishing.
I know there were fisher-folks as there were "some cars parked at the usual pull offs".
And........that silly-five minutes to change to green traffic light at the intersection of 88 and 89 is now gone........thank goodness......

Arrived at the lake at 10:00ish and was greeted with whitecaps and a rather stiff westerly wind........

Not wanting to fight the wind in the tube, I decided to wader-up and try roll casting while wading off of the dam for a while.
That turned out to be a good choice.

The first hour wading off the dam was slow and then right around 11:30 the fish turned "on".
So with a 'cator and a #14 Blood Midge hanging down about 6-8 feet I started getting strikes and landing.....errr....mmmmm........LDR'ing fish..........all Cutthroats !!!!

I was pretty shocked at the the size of some of the fish I got into.
Let's just say..........about half of the fish I hooked were larger than "rats".

There were about a dozen bait dunkers around the area where I was fishing and they were NOT AMUSED with the number of fish I missed, landed, and LDR'd.

So, my total for the day was 4 landed, 8 LDR's, and missed about a dozen strikes.........with the fish turning on @ 11:30 and shutting down ~ 3:00.

A couple of take-aways for me today were...........I need to tie my blood midges for Red lake on #12 hooks.
The #14's just couldn't hang in the fishes mouths, and the midges that were coming off today were in fact a size #12.
The fish were cruising about 25-30 feet offshore. I had zero strikes/hits any further out than the 25-30 feet.


Around 4:30 I started having some back soreness, so I packed it up at 5:00 and headed back down the hill.

Man, I had a blast today. I hooked into some "PIGS" and saw no fish bonked either.
If next weeks weather holds, I just may re-visit Red Lake.

For the ride home tonight........two small Gatorade's, a small water, and a granola bar.

Dang Cutthroats......................................



Bob