Last weekend we loaded up the truck with provisions, and headed back down for two days of serious fishing. We knew a little more than we had on the first trip and had some new techniques we wanted to try. We got on the water early Saturday and headed for the south end. We fly fished with wet and dry lines, but got no takers. There are huge numbers of minnows in this lake, and the surface is covered with their rises. The fish here are not lacking in food. We were drawn naturally to the creek, curious to see what kind of action was going on there. We approached carefully from the side and peered at the creek mouth. A big fish doubled back and flashed past us. Further up the creek I spotted three furry heads with giant whiskers. The family of otters stared at us and then dove. Fur torpedoes flew past us, and I realized with that kind of speed and agility, how vulnerable the fish were to their attack. No wonder we had seen fish in flight. They were racing for their lives. What greater place to ambush them than in the only creek they could ascend to spawn. Throughout the day we would see fish flying through the air in the area from the cove south to the creek. Then we would see the little furry heads. They were quite the team of assassins, working out their game plan by herding the fish back and forth. The last steelhead I caught had half his tail missing, and all the others had scars of some sort. Fresh Water Lagoon and Big Lagoon have their resident otters too. Easy pickins.

A few years ago Dan had taken me up to Walker Lake in Nevada for a birthday trip. We hit a crazy week of warm weather in February. This was the first time I had heard of trolling flies. Dan's trolling technique yielded 26 cutthroat trout in two days all over 16 inches. He would row a while, halt the boat with the oars and stroke forward, dropping the black wooly buggers down, then begin rowing again. The 'cuttys' couldn't resist it. We used this technique at Stone Lagoon as well as a zigzag pattern that had the effect of "mending" our lines, creating differing elevations and covering varying distances from shore.

Dan had tied up a big box of a variety of flies. We caught fish on a black woolly bugger, a cinnamon leach, a purple woolly bugger. Because I love trying crazy things, Dan tied up a fire-engine red leech pattern. I proceeded to catch a steelhead on one of these. Coming into the cove by the camping area, I hooked up something really small on this 'fire-engine fly', come to find out it was a shad about 7 inches. I understand that up until about six years ago this lagoon had shad up to three pounds. The lagoon harbors shad, steelhead, cutthroat trout, and three halibut have also been reported caught here this year. We tried many types of flies, and Dan even caught a steelhead on a chartreuse bug-eyed shad fly pattern. Saturday right after we launched, we watched a guy ride up to the parking area on a bike. This was no ordinary bike, it had a small homemade trailer welded to the frame topped by a small red canoe. Throughout the day more canoes arrived and proceeded across the water to the camping area. One of them later told me about the "luminous lagoon". The salt water in the ocean supports a population of photo-plankton which create this luminous effect. The water and any aquatic creatures that swim through it glow in the dark. Fish and even seals seem to be luminous. Taking their canoes to the ocean side of the lagoon, they tell me you can experience this same phenomenon. This is where the salinity of the lagoon is the highest, the farthest point from the creek's freshwater entrance. I understand this effect is best seen when skies are clear and we assume when the air temperature is warm. We're definitely going to come back and check this out.

October, November, and December are the months to fish here for the big steelhead, but a 22 inch cutthroat on a five weight is nothing to scoff at. Last October I was fly fishing along the near bank of the lagoon, casting toward shore with a hare's ear. We had watched some bank fly fishermen catch small cutthroats with size 10 cinnamon leaches, allowed to sink and retrieved in super slow motion toward the beach. I was casting toward shore and retrieving at a medium speed with short strokes, when I set the hook on a load. He took off like a jet, and from the head shaking action I felt it was a steelhead. When he broke water and went airborne the color and size were unmistakable. About six to eight pounds, he jumped several times for us and after about twenty minutes he sawed himself free. Never could get him near the boat. These are healthy, spunky fish that must be in tip top shape to evade the 'otter hit squad'. This trip we hooked more steelhead than cutthroat, all in the same size range. All in all we had a successful and enjoyable two days on the waters of Stone Lagoon and we'll be back in the fall for the Big Guys.

Columnist Joan Carter co-owns, with her husband, Dan Carter's Guide Service.