The bite took a dip in early August, really no apparent reason for it either cuz the fish were there. Thankfully a few loads of DFW fish to make up for a late start (for them not us) and loads of Idaho and Oregon fish, including ANOTHER boat full of Idaho fish put in yesterday – its’ been lights out if you can find a pattern. The fish are more spread out now that stocking has been relatively consistent as opposed to a big batch her and a big batch there.

The Hot STUFF – Surprisingly the trolling went just stupid the past few weeks. Best bet by far were small shallow diving jerk baits or countdowns trolled on top. They run about 3 to 7ft deep depending on the speed but trolling them slow downhill and maybe 2mph into the wind is a good start. No need to be precise on this btw, just approximating. The dough has been consistently productive and crawler crowd has been super successful fly lining right in the current. BLACK ANTS, big ones with white wings are another stilly good choice if you’re down to fly fish or know how the fly/bubble goes. A shocking number of Brook trout in the 12’ range have been caught the past few weeks – all on the fly – and all very healthy. If people keep putting them back that could be a very interesting bite next year.

The Hot SPOTS – Inlets, ROCK SLIDE, channel by the island for those casting. Trolling from the far corner of the dam to the rock slide and back has been silly good. Lots of C&R on pan sized bows with a bunch of the 2-3lb out of state imports eating them too. Someone got freight train’d on something big right by the dam – just hit it and took off – and the lure was only 3ft deep so it “weren’t no snag!”

At report time the South Lake fleet has 5 pontoon boats, 10 motorboats and 2 kayaks. Reservations are highly recommended and can be made on the Parchers Resort website www.ParchersResort.net

Current operating hours 7am – 6pm Daily.