We had fun catching big, heathy, fat cutthroat during the morning and early afternoon. We also caught one smaller rainbow. Was nice to get up where the air was cool and the hills green. The fishing was steady; not red hot but we caught something every few minutes, mostly on lures fished deep.

We launched at Renegade and trolled through the narrows. The mouth of the Narrows on the Soldier Creek side gave us the best action. Most of our fish came trolling at about 30 feet using a downrigger or leaded line. Fairly early in the morning we catch a couple nice fish just under the surface. The most productive lure was a Krocodile spoon in silver and red. We also caught fish on rainbow Rapalas and Lil Jakes.

We did not target kokanee and did not catch any.

With the hot, dry weather we’ve had this year, I wondered if we would see more of a late summer pattern but the fishing was pretty typical for late June. Fish were active at various depths in the water column. The lake level was fine – no problem launching or using the docks.

The lake was busy. We arrived by about 7:30 am and the parking lot at Renegade was almost full. I’ve never seen that many boat trailers there that early. We saw boats all around the lake and even saw some people water skiing and riding jet skies. Definitely more people on the lake than I’ve seen in recent years but it is a big lake and there is plenty of water to fish.

It was a beautiful day to be out.

– Dave Webb