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Mud, slime and Power Bait

• Published May 01, 2006

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05/01/2006 – Well, the flying mud, trout slime and Power Bait have all settled, and it's time to see how everyone did on Saturday's opening day of lowland lake fishing.

I didn't fish -- I was busying reporting and writing a story on the whole fantastic day -- but it was fun to talk to lots of anglers. All day, I kept thinking that we anglers too often put ourselves into little slots, such as fly anglers, bait anglers, bass anglers and so on.

You know, we're all just anglers, and I think it's safe to say we're united in our love of fishing, fish and clean lakes, streams and salt water.

I did fish a little Monday morning, and three trout whacked my damselfly nymph at that little lake near my house. It felt good to get out there and do more fishing than talking.

Anyway, I predicted last week that Long, Munn, Summit, Ward, Offut, Black and McIntosh lakes would be hot. I think I was right about half those lakes. If I were a baseball player, batting .500 would be fantastic. But I'm just an angler, so I'm sorry if you showed up at a lake that was cold.

Ward and Munn lakes seemed to be good for some anglers and crummy for others. Long Lake cranked out a lot of nice fish -- especially for skilled anglers.

Reader Scotty Kufus found red-hot fishing from the shore at McIntosh Lake. Here is part of his report: "I went to McIntosh Lake, made one cast and caught a fish in 30 seconds -- no lie. That is the way to start the day. I caught 5 trout in 22 minutes using Roostertails from the bank. There must have been 70 boats on the small lake, and most boats were catching fish. Lots of fish caught.

Scotty also said he saw a three-pound trout caught at Munn Lake. I talked to an angler at Munn Lake who had four big trout -- each were between 16 and 18 inches. Other anglers scrabbled hard for their fish.

It was the same deal at Ward Lake. Some anglers hit pockets of big fish, while others struck out. A state Department of Fish and Wildlife bioloigst at the lake told me that Ward was turning over, which hurts the fishing. Fishing should be very hot in a few days, she said.