[Ashrunner]

About 10 years ago, I was at Crane Prairie Reservoir south of here. Bald Eagles and Osprey populate that site. The fun came when an Osprey would grab a fish and the eagle would take it away. It almost seemed to be a game to them.

Around that same time, I had gone to Paulina Lake to do some fly fishing. Paulina Lake is inside Newberry Volcano and is one of two lakes inside the caldera. I had moved around to the northwest side of the lake and found a spot with a number of fish moving around in the shallows. So I waded out near some downed trees and started casting. As I was building up distance, I noticed a gorgeous Lake Trout slowly moving across my casting field, but a ways further out than I was planning to cast.

Hoping the trout was on the prowl for a meal, I decided to go after him. My first three casts fell short, and as I was ramping things up for the fourth cast, I heard the call of a nearby eagle. I gave my pole one final throw, released the line and watched as my fly landed within ten feet of the trout. The fly caused him to change his course and it began following the fly as I moved it across the surface.

I was using every trick I knew to tempt that trout into taking my fly. I finally decided to try a roll cast and see what would happen. As the fly reached the peak of the roll, I could see the trout start up, then I could see it's head break water and then a large brown wall covered it.

When the Bald Eagle moved off, she had the trout in her talons and was screaming a loud "Thank you" my way for bringing the trout closer to the surface.

While I stood there shaking my head, I became aware of a couple of guys in a boat not far away laughing their ass off. I reeled in my line, waved goodbye to the eagle, yelled a good luck to my human audience and headed back to the car.

That was the last time I fished that lake.