Palouse Outdoors: Taming the Tiger (Trout)

The pond could not have been more than a couple of acres, just small enough that I could fish a full lap around in my float tube before the consequences of sitting belly-deep in frigid water required a scramble to shore. The shorelines were steep and shaded by conifers except for along the manmade dam, which allowed enough sunlight to encourage a healthy aquatic vegetation bed to grow.

Per my usual mode of operation on trout waters, I cast a small wooly bugger-like fly on a five-weight rod and stripped the fly in quickly once it sank a few feet. It was early June, and the trout were on fire as...