Had a day to fish yesterday. A little early for my favorite spots. So tried something new.
Got there around 9:30am. Late start, but I figured the cold temps may prevent them from being too active early. Probably wrong, but I wasn't in a rush and had all day.
Fish were VERY active. Mostly swirling and sipping, but an occasional full leap.
Got the kayak and gear ready then took a few casts right at the launch using a small midge/mosquito dry fly. Didn't take long. Hooked a few, then headed out in the yak.
Throughout the day I tried a number of things witn mixed results:
1) dry flies - mixed. The midge did ok, but no looks at various caddis flies used as indicators. 2-3 fish. Several misses.
2) cast and strip various small streamers - 2 ro 3 fish, several misses.
3) trolling. Trolled uses 10 foot sink tip as well as floater with weighted fly. Added a small dropper soft hackle as well. Maybe 1 fish and a few bumps.
4) chironomids under an indicator- pretty slow. Got a few bump and one to hand. One guy showed up and fished for an hour or so using only chironomids, but was only getting a few of the dinks.
5) dry with midge emerged was hot. Emerger floating, in the film, or below surface didn't matter. They were excited about that dropper. Later switched it to an unweighted grhe and it got a lot of love as well. Pretty consistent all day. Fish were active almost all day with 10-20 minute lulls. Pretty much guaranteed a hit if you could hit one of the swirls on your cast.
Started out with a few chunky 12-14 inchers. Lost a little bigger one early. Then by 11am, was just cookie cutter stockers of about 10 inches.
Got some good sun and also some heavy rain showers mixed in. Typical March weather. Water temp was about 48 degrees.
Got there around 9:30am. Late start, but I figured the cold temps may prevent them from being too active early. Probably wrong, but I wasn't in a rush and had all day.
Fish were VERY active. Mostly swirling and sipping, but an occasional full leap.
Got the kayak and gear ready then took a few casts right at the launch using a small midge/mosquito dry fly. Didn't take long. Hooked a few, then headed out in the yak.
Throughout the day I tried a number of things witn mixed results:
1) dry flies - mixed. The midge did ok, but no looks at various caddis flies used as indicators. 2-3 fish. Several misses.
2) cast and strip various small streamers - 2 ro 3 fish, several misses.
3) trolling. Trolled uses 10 foot sink tip as well as floater with weighted fly. Added a small dropper soft hackle as well. Maybe 1 fish and a few bumps.
4) chironomids under an indicator- pretty slow. Got a few bump and one to hand. One guy showed up and fished for an hour or so using only chironomids, but was only getting a few of the dinks.
5) dry with midge emerged was hot. Emerger floating, in the film, or below surface didn't matter. They were excited about that dropper. Later switched it to an unweighted grhe and it got a lot of love as well. Pretty consistent all day. Fish were active almost all day with 10-20 minute lulls. Pretty much guaranteed a hit if you could hit one of the swirls on your cast.
Started out with a few chunky 12-14 inchers. Lost a little bigger one early. Then by 11am, was just cookie cutter stockers of about 10 inches.
Got some good sun and also some heavy rain showers mixed in. Typical March weather. Water temp was about 48 degrees.
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