First cutthroat trout over 4 pounds of the year.

January 19. Once again at Horne Lake and another gorgeous day. Water temperature had risen 2 degrees to 45 F and the air had warmed up to 12 C a few degrees above normal. Today I went straight down to the south western bay and started fishing the creek mouths. In British Columbia a lone fisherman in a boat trout fishing is allowed to fish two rods at once. I was fishing in my 12 foot aluminum and I put a black leach fly on my right hand rod that another fly fisherman had tied out of bear hair. His name is Kim and I have met him twice at my most favorite lake. Kim said after years of tying flies and experimenting this black leach was one of his meat and potato flies. Kim was also kind enough to give me his favorite meat and potato fly, a green dragonfly nymph which I have had great success with. Thank you Kim. So today I had Kims black leach on my right hand rod and I put a silver muddler minnow on my left hand rod which I hold in my right hand while I steer the boat with my left hand. I always hold the rod with the fly that I think will be more productive. As I entered the bay where the first creek enters the lake I was watching the screen and sure enough 8 fish showed up. My fish finder has 3 symbols small, medium and large. On the screen 3 of the fish were medium sized. I'm not all together positive the weight of the medium fish but I have caught four fish over 4 pounds when the medium fish show on the screen in the last two years. In this bay you enter from the north and you go through it until you hit the shallow bank. Then you have to make a sharp right hand turn 90 {degrees} and try to position your flies over the fish. I was watching the screen and when I decided that my flies were over the fish I turn really sharp to the left to drag the flies over the fish. Almost a 180 degree turn. As I straighten out I estimating where the fish was going to hit my sliver muddler minnow. I went about 50 feet further than I thought the fish would hit and then to my surprise my left hand rod {with the black leach} bent behind me and wrapped around the motor, almost touching my rod that I was holding. I got the rush that you get when you know that you have a nice fish on. What a feeling. I was so excited that I threw the rod in my right hand into the boat while I was reaching for the rod with the fish on with my left hand. I had to grab my rod in the boat again to keep it from falling in the lake. By then the cutthroat was heading into shore and the fight was on. After about 6 minutes I landed him. I took my time because I wanted to keep him as my youngest daughter was coming from Australia and I wanted to treat her with some fresh trout. I am a catch and release type of fisherman except for special occasions and on some lakes when you would like a shore lunch. Landing the cutthroat I knew he was big and when I got home he weighed 4 pounds and 6 ounces. All excited I went to the end of the lake and fished the dead heads for an hour and landed three more cutthroats between 15" and 18". All in all a very beautiful day on the water with some excitement. They say the trout fishing isn't very good until April on Vancouver Island. If that's true I wonder how April fishing is going to be.