And eat they do. Sprague Lake is rich in fish food. It has so much more than the typical eastern Washington lake that it provides "optimal foraging," according to the WDFW.

Like the all-you-can-eat dinner table at the Seahawks training camp, each fish can fill an expanding waistline without having to leave the table. Lots of calories in with little effort mean heavy fish.

The overall management plan for the lake calls for making the lake a trout fishery for the first four to five years until the warmwater fish reach harvestable populations, then maintain it as a mixed-specieswater. It will be interesting to see if the Lahontan cutthroat fry, planted in late 2008, will grow to the same size as they do in Grimes and Omak lakes as well as Lake Lenore. If so, look for some big fish to show up in bag limits. One significant change this time around is walleyes will be excluded from the mix.

One of the benefits of applying rotenone is dramatically improved water clarity. Donley correctly predicted that the visibility would increase as the carp population decreased.

Haugen of Four Seasons said, by last spring, visibility off his dock was 6 to 7 feet. Guests at the resort reported spotting the bottom in 10 to 15 feet water toward the middle of the lake. Improved water clarity just makes the lake more enjoyable to fish.

The lake gets an interesting warm-weather algae bloom that cuts visibility, but it also contributes to the forage. The bloom continues until the water temperature drops with the cold winter weather, and it does not adversely affect the fish.

TECHNIQUES
Whatever your favorite method, you can find success at Sprague. When Steve Bohnemeyer and I last visited the lake, we saw anglers sitting in lawn chairs, soaking their feet in the lake while still-fishing. All the usual still-fishing baits work -- worms, PowerBait, salmon eggs -- especially if they are suspended just over the tops of the weeds that are growing on the bottom.

Fish cruise the shoreline. Long casts are not necessary.

The lake is also popular with trollers. Make large east-west ovals off the WDFW public launch. You could also drift with the wind, then motor back uplake to repeat the process.

Haugen said anglers troll most everything -- spoons, plugs, Flatfish and Roostertails -- with equal success. A bit of night crawler on the lure adds some enticing scent. Some guys haul a silver willow-leaf flasher, lead-core line and a Wedding Ring spinner tipped with a worm. But the relatively shallow water favors lighter gear.

Fly-fishers love Sprague. The relatively shallow water allows fly-tossers to effectively fish the water column from top to bottom using a variety of fly lines. If limited to one line, go with a Type III sinktip.

Chironomids make up a huge volume of the trout diet in most still waters, and Sprague is no exception. Small and red, under a strike indicator, long leader and floating line are words to live by.

For those without the patience to watch the bobber, the other usual suspects are damsel, dragonfly and leech patterns in black or olive green. Pack a couple of adult damsel patterns for those hot summer days when the air is filled with adults buzzing around reeds and trout are looking up for a full meal deal. When a trout explodes on an adult damsel, those rises are enough to turn even the most blasé angler into a gibbering idiot.

In the past, the lake has supported a mayfly hatch. Fish always like mayflies, either as nymphs, emergers or full-grown adults, so make sure you have some of each in the fly box.