And once again, it was a re-run from last week and the week before - we had nice cool breezes, a bit of rain, lightning and thunder-booms which were experienced by the many anglers at the Lake over the week - yup, sounds pretty much like last week's report. Clouds in the afternoon kept the Lake at a nice comfortable temperature, in fact, we're putting jackets on fairly early in the afternoon. Oh, and we've got a bit of color showing across the Lake in Jack's Bay by the rock slide. Yup, it's that time of year.

Had a bit of a slow-down on the fishing action - might be the rain (although Rick always says "the fish don't know it's raining!"), but if you had a bit of patience - there are fish to be had! Fishing the Inlets with NightCrawlers or PowerBait. Trolling flashers and a NightCrawler, or just a WoolyBugger or just a NightCrawler. Drifting around the rock piles with NightCrawlers. Shore anglers were using NightCrawlers and PowerBaits.

With the rain showers we were getting, the number of people increased in the café - Nims found a nice comfortable out of the way place to sleep. Rick discovered him down by the cash register when he was looking for something.

Well this is the 8th week of working on the bridge and boy are they gettin' it done! Just to recap - the first week - they had roped off the North Lake Hiker parking area at the North Lake road last week - the second week a storage container and forklift were delivered to the roped off area. Now for the 3rd week - we couldn't figure out what was done on the bridge last week. The 4th week progress report - nothing has progressed as far as we can tell. So now for the 5th week - Rick talked with the project manager and apparently they needed a few more permits, but we hear there'll be physical progress this coming week! So the progress for the 6th week is - we now have not one but two stoplights on the Lake Sabrina Road - and we do ask that you obey the lights - or you may be backing up on the narrow road - with the installation of lots of K-rails on the road to protect the bridge crew. They also placed huge concrete blocks down in the creek bed. The 7th week brought more changes in the landscape around the bridge - there's a lot of the dirt & rock to the east of the bridge missing. During the 8th week, they moved masses amounts of earth and rock and I mean masses. They've slowed the water coming out of the Lake as they're working down in the creek bed by the bridge, so the Lake has actually come up a bit - not much, but we'll take anything we can get. We'll keep posting pictures each week to let you know what's happening. THE CYCLE ON THE RED LIGHT TAKES ABOUT 2 MINUTES - PLEASE BE PATIENT - DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU HAVING TO BACK UP ON THE ROAD. We are assured the road will remain open during the season, so do not fret, you will be able to get to the Lake.

KEEPING THIS IN - Believe it or not, most of the skeeters are gone - woo-hoo-but remember if you do use some skeeter juice or SANITIZER you need to really wash your hands before fishing - then rub some Salmon Egg juice, worm dirt or Anglers Bros Trout attractant (got it in stock at the Lake) to take that smell off. Remember your polarized dark glasses and sunscreen - we've seen a few anglers that looked a bit like cooked lobster. Also, wear something on your feet that will protect them from hooks, glass, etc - there's a lot of that stuff around!

Temperatures are expected to be in the low 70's with lows in the mid to upper 40's. The forecast is for us to dry out this week, but maybe some more thunder-boomers in store for us next weekend. DON'T FORGET TO PACK A JACKET WHEN YOU COME TO THE LAKE and if there's a chance of thunderbooms - DON'T FORGET YOUR PONCHOS. Please check www.weather.gov and enter ASPENDELL, CA on the site and it will give you a fairly good hint at the weather or check in with Howard at www.MammothWeather.com.

And, of course, we'll have HOMEMADE pie and ice cream (until it's gone), sodas, beer, wine, coffee, tea and hot cocoa!

Looking forward to seeing you all in the very near future.

Juanita, Rick, Patti, Bryan, Len, Ginny & Thomas