Any Lake Fishers in the House?
- This topic has 18 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated Sep 16, 2007 at 5:40 pm by
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Not for bass, gills, walleye, pike (well, I would love a pike on a flyrod)……………for trout.
There is this little lake 5 miles from the house; maybe 15 acres.
Mending Machine,
I have a decent amount of experience fishing a variety of trout-filled lakes in Colorado.
Thanks……….
I am in Cody, WY, and I have fished lakes off and on over the years, but I never really seem to figure it out.
Lando, Have you ever seen any grasshoppers around this lake? If so, my approach would be to throw a hopper or a medium sized attractor pattern like a size 12 stimi chew toy. Throw it into the wind and then let the wind push you around the lake as you troll with the bug. That method has always worked well for me when hoppers are present on the banks. Oh, and make sure you have some beer with you! Lake fishing can be boring!!
Joel
My fly fishing education was on Tasmanian lakes _ anything but boring.
If I couldn;t fish a dry, I used to sleep, I hated blind flogging streamers, and itsstill my least favorite wat to fish.
When I left Tassie for the US I didn’t own a fly undr a 14 and not one bugger ;D Life was good.Not having that much experience on western lakes I was hesitant to post. But Joels advice is a good one, and my one shot at it was doing that outside of Laramie _ a cool hog pond filled with Kamloops.
Streamers will work.
You are getting into the sinking line game _ don’t forget chironomids, practice your Figur 8 retrieves _ SLowDon’t just fish the deep water, look at the edges, rainbows will patrol the dropoffs. weedbeds.
Not sure about the features on the lake etc whther the conditions would be right but _
On windy days do you see glassy “roads” over the rippled surface? If you do work them.
In tassie we called them windlanes _ how they work is complicated but treat them like the bubble line on a river _ they actually concentrate food. Get to their upstream end _ one with leaves, trash is best _
It seems that the other posts on this thread are more experienced than what I know but here is my two cents.
I’ve had success based around one thing…the slow strip.
I’d emphasize a few things that have already been mentioned:
1) Trolling with a streamer–very effective from a row boat or pontoon in calm conditions. Helps with the boredom. Can be extremely effective in windy conditions but hard to control the boat and drift.
2) Steve’s advice on “windlanes” is excellent advice. Pay attention to what the wind is doing. On slightly large lakes, 100 acres or more, especially if you have a windlane between two land points, the windlane will hold fish. Also, the leeward side of the lake may draw more fish in on a given day.
3) A slow sinking line will help on the streamer fishing while trolling. Sci Anglers Stillwater line is a great one.
I used to fish Jefferson Lake west of Denver on several trips there in the 80s and 90s. Is was fun to hike around and you could always fish the beaver ponds if you got bored with the lake fishing.
Speaking of wind, it is my experience that the fish will be facing into the wind (more often than not).
2 options as I see it:
-Fish at 25 feet or there abouts with a gold cone head black and ginger wooly bugger, trolling slowly usually works
-Fish in the evenings and/or wait for it to get colder and let hatches get going
MM-
I know that lake you speak of, and the one next to it. I have fished them and whenever I get out west I always try to hit some stillwaters. I love them becasue growing up I have always fished streams. Here in Wisconsin- we have numerous spring lakes and ponds. In fact we have more lakes than our state to the west which claims to have 10,000. We have like 15,000. I am by no means an expert- but I usually do pretty well. Here is different but it is still the same- trouts is trouts.
Scuds, Fb hares ears, soft hackles, — Hand twist retreive-varied (slow, very slow, and cobwebs on fingers) these bugs move slow- try to pick a fly to match –and fish structure.Whenever I have a slow day-or I see that midges are coming off- I go to chroms under a bobber (indicator) this always seems to work. 2-4 feet down on a floating line- double rig. In fact I always dropper on a lake. Little or no retrieve.
A never fail- or a tactic to try on a new lake to locate fish is to fish a leach pattern trolling on a sinking line. Mohair- bugger, bunny- whatever- black- with red- or a streamer –same technique. This is fun for awhile- but can get boring and not as fun as hand twitching in strikes.
Observe the topography of that lake and notice the subtle transitions of potential underwater drop offs or points. Concentrate on those areas. Think of the lake like a stream- insomuch as the fish are cruising around it–if it were a perfect circle they would just constantly cruise around and around. But where structure (drop offs, points, etc) are- it is almost a ‘break in the current’ situation. This means the fish at that point will sort of interupt a straight cruise around those areas.
Also, even when the water has a higher surface temp (too high dont fish, of course-hard for them to recover)– there is a thermocline– this is a point in the water depth that will always be colder- this is a very definate line -(think of diving under the water while swimming and hitting the cold part) This also serves as a point of differnce trout will key on.
On drop offs or weed beds– stay shallow and fish off of them. Much like a river holds fish where most people wade– a lake or pond has the fish where most people boat.
Have fun there– those are definately HOGS in that water. Oh– and usually – a rule of thumb– if you can see them- they don’t hit (dsclaimer-not always true-just about 95% of the time)
Dan Boggs
Lando, Have you ever seen any grasshoppers around this lake?
JoelNo, but I was going to try a hopper/dropper tomorrow.
L Oh, and make sure you have some beer with you! Lake fishing can be boring!!
Joel
I will this week.
Hippie-
With the forage you mentioned- my first approach would be bead head chironomids wind drifted under an indicator- a hopper or floating beetle would be my choice in a little chop or – a bobber/yarn indicator if that’s your bent. In a dead calm I would just use a long leader and floating line with a 2-3″ hi -vis floating indicator line section attached.
Leeches I would fish hand twists or lift and drop/twitch on a type 3 or 4 full sink line- using Booby style/Foam back
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