I'll be on Whidbey Monday through Thursday next week. I'll certainly be fishing Pass Lake, and I don't mind driving to Lone Lake. Anyone want to join me at one of those lakes. Tell me what day(s)--T, W, Th-- work best for you.

While the parking lot at Pass Lake is still closed, I saw a backhoe there yesterday. Hopefully that means repair work will be underway soon. In the mean time, you can park in a couple of turnouts along Highway 20 and launch your PWC. I fished there two days ago from about 12:30 until 3:30 and had some nice fish on. I only landed the first, a beautiful Brown of 23" (photo), but three or four other nice fish took. I just wasn't able to keep them on. The Brown was taken right near the weeds on the western point, trolling a black/brown booby leach deep and slow. There was no doubt about it--a solid take and steady pull. I had no luck with a small baitfish fly along and in the weed bed at the point and no luck casting and retrieving leach or baitfish patterns along the western shoreline north of the point. Ditto trolling across to the eastern shoreline. The change came when I switched to a flash fly (black rabbit fur with lots of dark green Flashabou). Casting to the bank and retrieving at a surprisingly quick pace enticed three or four nice fish along the shoreline of the large cove along Highway 20. Give it a try.

Four of us floated in our PWCs from Swift Creek to Rockport (3 miles) yesterday in the pouring rain and were skunked. We only saw two Chums jump. There was no one else on the river. Maybe is was just a poor day; maybe the fish are farther up the river now. Still, it was good to be on the river and see the good water there is to fish. This stretch is definitely worth floating again.