Back to Amber today due to forecast of sunny skies and temps in upper 50s, could not pass it up! Mildest day I've had this year while fishing. Hit the water at approx 10:00. Water temp up to a balmy 42. Linked up with a gentleman named Dan. We both anchored and began dunking bloodworms. His pattern was evidently more sexy than mine. He was dialed in and forced me to watch him land several fish!! My standard pattern got only a few takes and even fewer fish. Most of our fish were 12-14". About 11:00 or so a good hatch came off so I switched to a wine chironimid pattern that had performed well in the past. For 45 minutes or so the fish were all over it...it was Dan's turn to watch! His bloodworm was still producing, though. The big boys were feeding now. All fish 16" and above. But then everything stopped on both the chironimid and Dan's bloodworm despite the continuing hatch. Struggling, we commenced the "switchology" drill. I settled on a #16 black chironimid (lightning bug?). Back on them immediately with several takes and landed fish. Still big fish. This lasted about an hour. Dan tossed a black zebra midge which drew an immediate take from a large fish that shot straight by his boat and into the weeds. Shortly after Dan left. I continued for another hour or so and got a few each on the chironimid and later on a bloodworm after the hatch finished. Dan and I easily had 50-plus takes between the two of us, an exciting day. Be prepared to switch and switch often if your regular patterns quit producing.

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