Launched about 9am and had the first fish in the boat at 10 when my buddy hooked up with a nice 2lb carryover on a Muddler Minnow tipped with Berkley Gulp maggots. I caught several planters on a plug, so we switched over to non-baited plugs for the rest of the day.

Started out with trolling patterns similar to what I use at Roosevelt but that wasn't what these fish wanted, had to slow my presentation quite a bit to make them happy.

My fishing partner and I boated several fish, and since we were bait free, we practiced C&R with the little guys unless they were mortally wounded. We were after the bigger 'bows we read about.

Lost a dandy that only made it half way in the net, so he got to swim away to fight another day. Lost another nice one on my leaded line outfit when it pulled my leader through the knot. I put an end to that scenario by tying a small bead swivel to the braid and then tying on my leader - problem solved.

Best fish of the day, and my 5th keeper, was a 20 1/4" 3lb 8oz 'bow caught on a #5 chartreuse/silver Rapala floating plug. My buddy was pulling the same plug in shad and both were very effective. I was also pulling a Rip'n Minnow 65 in orange/gold on my mono rig and it was producing quite well too.

Most productive trolling speed was between 1.5 - 1.8mph. Streamer style flies were ok, but not as much activity with them compared to plugs. We were successful with leaded line and long line mono. We ran the #5 Rapalas on leaded line roughly 2 1/2 colors out (100' per my line counter reel) and I sent my mono rig to 125' behind the boat. Water surface temps were 68° - 69°.

We spent about half our time fishing the deeper section of water east of Harper's Island midway between Four Season's Resort and the public launch before moving to the narrows for the rest of the day. Both areas produced consistently, especially planters, and each produced at least one carryover.

We had periods of heavy overcast, and some really dark, ominous looking clouds, as well as sunny breaks. Every time we had a break in the clouds with some bright sun, the bite improved significantly. Oddly, as clouds moved back in and blocked the sun, the bite seemed to just shut off. Just the opposite of what I would expect.

The carryovers had good orange/red flesh, not quite as nice as the Roosevelt 'bows I'm used to, but still not the pale pinkish white of planter trout. I hope they smoke up nice, will find out Saturday.

COLD start to the day, but near ZERO wind and then some sunshine, made the day actually better than average. Some improvement over my previous trips, I was actually able to catch a couple small trout (both released). I saw all of one boat on the lake and only one(?) other bank angler. The solitude and endless parade of waterfowl and other birds added to a very positive experience. Both resorts appear to now be open; I'll be trying them some time in the future.

To be honest, I am puzzled by my lack of recent success at Sprague Lake. Although my wife and I are mere bank anglers, we usually catch a fish or two or at least, we get our share of bites. For the third Sunday in a row, we not only caught ZERO fish, but we also had ZERO bites. The weather today on Easter Sunday was INCREDITABLE! The boats seemed to be having our lack of success as did the few other bank anglers at the public access. Perhaps, the bank anglers at the now open Sprague Lake Resort are doing better? On a side note, the public access is always a problem area for litter. The bank has been better lately, but on our way out, we noticed the pile of beer bottles and garbage freshly left at the toilet area. Come on folks...PACK IT IN / PACK IT OUT!!! This type of crap only breeds more garbage, before a very spread thin, WDFW site clean-up worker can drop by; sometime many weeks later. I always pickup after the slobs, but my wife stopped me today;due to the volume.

Went out to spraque hoping to get some big trout like I used to, we tried everything, powerbait, wax worms, meal worms, spikes, glow jigs and the like, we were on the southern shore east of the end of harper island in about 10 feet of water, the water was crystal clear.

A lot of old holes in the area and no refreeze, although the ice looked pretty cracked up it was still a solid 5-6 inches.

Cold day, got on the water around 9am, no wind dead calm 35 degree water. Was able to fool 4 of the 18-19"ers and lost a few, one being the bigger 5+lbrs right at the side of the boat on a poor net job by dad, my son not happy about that but had fun.Ice started to form on the surface so we called it about 11:30. Pulled the boat to shore and ran to the car for a warming up. Go to load the boat and find its floated out abot 20 yards from shore!! ....Thank God for the 2 nice guys that noticed our dilema and saved our boat. I gratefully rewarded them with some nice fly patterns that have been good to me there.....I wont let that happen again!