Cold mornings and beautifully warm afternoons for the past week, it's that time of year when an angler is bundled up in the morning and peeling layers as the day plays out. Water temperatures are running 57 in the morning climbing to 60 degrees by late afternoon. Fish are still scattered throughout the entire lake adjusting to the water temperature changes from a very hot summer. One must cover a lot of water to rack up the numbers right now. Fishing has been slow for some, and better for others. My guest C&R 14 fish yesterday using a verity of different techniques. The big surprise was how many smaller fish came to the net in the 12" range, a product from a recent plant of Eagle Lake rainbows. For such a small sized trout they fight quite aggressively, and remind me of the rainbows of the Lower Yuba River. That's an Eagle Lake rainbow for you. Lots of fly anglers on the lake both in tubes and roaming the shore, plus bait anglers, and trollers.
Big flies are producing like Jay Fair stripping flies in a size 8, callibaetis nymphs, and krystal buggers in all the standard fall colors. Stripping seems to be the most effective technique right now, much better than the indo rig. There are dry fly opportunities in the early afternoon with callibaetis duns, and smaller midges with a black body emerging. Stomach samples from yesterday were packed with the same smaller chironomids, a few juvenile damsels, and callibaetis. There are some areas where sight fishing from the bank in 1 to 3 feet of water exists. Fishing will increasingly get better in the weeks to come as water temperatures drop, hopefully the bigger bullies will show up and push the smaller fish off the feeding beds. I have a very limited amount of days open for October, but more in November if the region does not get hit hard with cold snowy weather, only time will tell. See you on the high desert lake...
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| Emerging Midge Pupa |
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