Early Season Kenauk Trout

A long winter has passed and spring is here!  It didn't come too early on the lake we were booked to fish the second week of May.  As in, the ice left the week before!  But it was gone and a group of twelve of us from the Ottawa Flyfishers were pumped to get out on the water.  For most of this it was the first fishing for a few months.The destination was Kenauk Nature's Lac Taunton.   With ice off so recent, anticipation was high.The Taunton chalet is first class.  It is one of the new and larger ones with plenty of comfortable space for our crew.  It didn't take long to stow their gear and head down to the lake.And out onto the lake, hopefully for some productive late afternoon fishing.As it turned out, the fish either weren't all that hungry or we couldn't figure out what they wanted.  It took a while but as the sun began to set, the fish turned on.The lake is stocked with colourful rainbow trout including some very nice sized ones!  We hooked into several energetic fish in the 17-19 inch range.  Even after the long winter their bodies were thick and powerful.  My personal success came fishing a clear intermediate line using a black micro zonker.  The day ended with promise.While conditions looked good for the following day, fishing proved tough and again it wasn't until later in the day before people began to catch numbers of fish. Maddenly, I was skunked for the day despite trying almost everything I could imagine.  At least others were more successful so there was hope. Last morning before heading home, out on the water by 6 for a few hours of fishing before breakfast.  The one thing I had not tried the previous day was dropping down to a narrower tippet size.  So this morning out came the 4x, something I can't remember using on this lakes in the past.Gearing up and getting the float tube in the water was done in short order.  My plan was to begin fishing off part of the shoreline where there was lots of deadwood fallen into the water.  From a distance I had seen rises there the previous morning.  One of the limitations of the float tube is that it takes a while to move around so shifting locations is no accomplished without a bit of work. Whether it was the tippet or just a new day, things started off much better.  Within 30 minutes I had hooked and landed three nice rainbows, casting a small minnow imitation towards the wood and dragging it back to deeper water.  Things slowed a bit for me after the first hour but clearly the fish weren't done.Kenauk Nature offers great fishing and can accommodate a wide range of fishers.A sometimes challenging but nonetheless excellent start to the season!