Still fishing with bait is the best bet for trout anglers at Howard Prairie right now, and Powerbait is the bait of choice.

Trolling worms continues to produce some fish but is generally slow to fair. One boat with two anglers trolled the channel near Fawn Island and caught four trout and two smallmouth bass in three hours recently.

Many of the trout show evidence of copepods or copepod scars. This is a natural parasite that lives on the outside of the fish and can simply be scraped off.

The lake is 89 percent full. The surface temperature was 72F last week and will climb this week.