Lake Report: A Very Nice Beginning

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Opening day. I waited until late afternoon to wend my way to the lake. As in the past, I will refer to it in this and future posts as Trout Lake. The crowds were already out along the way: crowds of deer and bright yellow balsam root blooms.

Crowds, too, at the first lake I come to on the way to Trout Lake. This is just one end of the lake. The other end and both sides were also crowded with campers.

Trout Lake carries restricted gear regulations--no motors, no bait, single barbless hooks, one fish limit--so it attracts a smaller sampling of the population. It was still relatively crowded. The south end had six or seven fly fishers all bunched up together at the access, so I drove on to the north end. Plenty of room.

I started with some new little nymphs under an indicator, but didn't get any attention.

I switched to the green bead-head thing and trolled awhile, and caught the first fish of the brand new season. It was a beauty, too.

I trolled for awhile, enjoying the beautiful evening. Every once in awhile I'd get a bump or a pull, but no hookup. But a lot was going on under the surface. The lake is healthy.

I took a break. It was a warmish day in the valley--mid-sixties--but cooler up at the lake, and my feet were a little numb, and even my hands were cold.

When I got back in the water I tied on a top water fly that I tied up Friday night. It's not a stimulator per se, but it has some characteristics of it. A few fish were coming up as the water stilled down, and I cast and twitched here and there.

Then a fish rose just off to my right,so I flipped the fly out near its rise ring. The fish came up and nosed the fly--no take--but I raised up to set the hook and dragged the fly about two feet. The fish followed, came up, and engulfed it. Lovely, lovely.

I was already feeling good to have caught a fish on opening day, but now I was really feeling good to have caught one on a dry. That makes for a very nice beginning.

I went back to trolling. All too soon it was time to paddle in and pack up, but on the way in I caught one more fish. That made a nice beginning even nicer.