First rainbow of the year!

It was a warm 60 degrees here in Florence this afternoon. The wind seemed light at our house, so I decided to give Munsel Lake a try. When I got there, the wind was brutal. It had to be blowing at least 20 from the east. Wanting to at least get some paddling in, I set off for the east shore of the lake. One foot wind waves were braking over my bow, and it was very slow going. Finally after reaching the far shore, where the water was nice and calm, I was able to get a line in the water. Using the time tested method of trolling a piece of night crawler, I slowly worked my way around the shoreline. Circling, I made another pass of the far shore. Not a bite, so I decided to head back to the boat ramp along the south shore of the lake. I eventually had the wind to my back, and didn't need to paddle anymore. After wind trolling a ways, Bam!, a hit. The line went slack, so I opened the bail and let the line go out. The wind was still blowing me at a good clip. I closed the bail hoping that whatever had hit me would come back for another try. He did! After being hooked, the rainbow made a series of jumps, and then headed down. I slowly inched him to the yak, and after one final jump, almost over my extended paddle, I was able to land my first trout of the year. A fat 16 incher. Frest trout for dinner tomorrow, and some needed points for the AOTY!

 Glodendog--- Good job, sounds like a good fight! nice cold water winter rainbow                                                                                                         Thats a pretty lake, never been there..                                                                                                         

Nice fish GD!  Keep it up!

Nice Troutskie Dave. That is a nice lake, gonna have to get up that way and fish it one of these days.