October 26, 2024

A small fleet of fishing boats ranging from one-person kayaks to low-slung, rocket-propelled bass boats squeezed me from my preferred perch hole on a recent Sunday morning near my campsite at Idaho’s Lake Cascade State Park.
Rather than stress and feel aggrieved, I pulled anchor and rowed my cedar-strip rowboat 200 yards northward before dropping anchor again. The nearest anglers were a father and daughter fishing from huge sandstone rocks on a shoreline 75 yards away. Around lunchtime, I pulled my stringer aboard and counted 12 perch – three of them 12 to 13 inches long and built like smallmouth bass.