Today was Opening Day for Trout Fishing on three Southern Oregon Lakes, Diamond Lake, Hyatt Lake and Howard Prairie Lake. And a BEAUTIFUL day it was! Diamond Lake and Hyatt Lakes were both still covered in ice, so anglers were going to be drilling holes in the ice to enjoy opening day on those lakes. Although they were just battling snow last week, anglers found gorgeous Spring conditions at Howard Prairie Lake today.

New owner Joel LeGrande spent most of last week breaking ice still on the lake, so Southern Oregon Anglers could enjoy this annual tradition. Today, Joel described the bubbles that formed under the ice due to warming temperatures having popped, resulting in a sudden dropping of the ice on the lake. My first thought was, "what about the fish?",but Joel explained it was a sudden, but slow, descension, with plenty of time for the fish to get out of the way.

Terry told us that they had over 26 feet of snow here this past winter, and he and Dan on one of their snow shoeing adventures to check on the resort found seven feet of snow on the roof of the Marina hut, sinking it. This February, they found 3 feet of ice inside the hut, with the hut sitting on the bottom of the lake. Terry lives in the area during the Winter, too, and checks on the resort throughout the winter. Terry has pictures of nothing but white out the windows of his home, which he saw frequently this winter. He said the snow started out with low water content in November and December, but by January, the water content had picked up dramatically, and they are expecting Howard Prairie Lake to be nice and full this year, giving us what we hope will be a nice long season at this gorgeous Resort full of friendly people.

We moor our boat at Howard Prairie Lake every season, and it was good to see Joel, Terry, Ron and Dan today, when we went up to see how the fishing was going. Terry told us "some big ones" were being pulled out of the lake today, with a lot of them coming from the shore fishing anglers were doing off the jetty. Mrs. LeGrande was busy manning the cash register in the Store when we stopped in to enjoy our first (of many!) soft serves of the season.

It will be a couple of weeks before Howard Prairie Lake will be ready for us to get our boat out of winter storage to bring it up to the lake for mooring, as the moorings are still encased in ice. It was wonderful to touch base with our friends at Howard Prairie Lake again today. Will be back again soon!

See you out there!