I'm in my third season fishing Lake Hattie, so I have no illusions about the kind of action I'll get there on a fly or spin rod. On March 31st,after I spent from 8:00 a.m. until 2:45 p.m. thinking all the fish had moved on or were following the spawn up at the inlet, and almost ready to depart to try my luck at Meeboer or Twin Buttes, I hooked into this beauty -- 23" female yellow finned cutbow. My net scale (the scale I use if it's handy to weigh my net and all with the fish inside) isn't Swiss watch accurate all the time, but subtracting the weight of the net the reading was just under seven pounds. This fish was flawless as far as I could tell -- no abrasions, split or frayed fins, missing scales or anything like that. I'm thinking it's probably a four year old fish in prime condition that probably was an actual cross between an implanted rainbow and a cutthroat, or maybe even a rainbow and another cutbow that successfully spawned in Hattie. Fascinating colors -- very "silver," yet very pinkish iridescent which the picture doesn't capture at all. So, how do I describe only one fish after nearly seven hours of persistent casting in more than usually cold and gusty conditions? Perfect Day!!!
