On the water at the crack of dawn - 10am. My companion for the outing is a
professional musician and that is as early as it gets. We rented a motor
boat and the lady was apologetic about the current fishing conditions - not
a good sign. The weather is hot, the water 69 degrees, the sky is clear and
we can see Mt. St. Helens with no puff of smoke this morning. I line up my
5wt temple fork, put on a chartreuse popper and head for the canals. I tie
up a spinner bait for my friend and he starts working the lily pad borders
and I cast underneath an overhanging tree. As I work the shore line I
notice fish slurping something on the surface under a tree. It make a
spectacular cast, well spectacular for me anyway, and my popper disappears.
I can tell by the take that it is too big for a sunfish so I assume it is a
bass. The fish takes out line and charges under the boat. After a few
minutes I work him to the surface - not a bass - a grass carp. Maybe 6
pounds but fought bigger and better than his size. Boated and released the
carp. The sterilized carp, as I learned later, were planted to eat back the
vegetation that is choking this fishery. Anyway, I abandon my popper and
put on a girdle fly, like the one I tied for this last swap and I landed an
8" bass and that was all the fish activity for the day. My friend never
caught anything, even though I concentrated on helping him the rest of the
afternoon.

Got a little sunburned and then fretted whether or not to post this TR, but
decided it might be OK to add to the Wayne affect even if it wasn't much of
a report.

Chris