After a long gap between fishing trips, I and a friend headed up to the mountains for the first trip of the summer. Let's call it "Hirudinous Lake". We weren’t alone as a flyfishing club had an outing here as well. But the lake is big enough to accommodate the 20+ floating craft without too much interference. Per usual, the lake was windy, albeit variable. The wind would die for periods or even swirl around just for variety, but then gust to the low teens – pretty typical.
Per usual, I had 3 rods rigged up: a 5 wt with a sink-tip line with a brown seal leach and a damsel nymph trailer, a 4 wt with a floating line with a size 14 black and white chironomid and a size 18 red and black chironomid, and a 3 wt with a floating line with a size 14 biot-bodied Callibaetis parachute. In the end, I caught fish on all three rods.
From the launch, I started out by slow trolling the 5 wt. out to the middle of the lake- no runs, no hits, no errors. I anchored up and threw out the chironomids, but there were Callibaetis spinners in the air and I saw a dun lifting off the water. Casting dry flies to cruising rainbows is one of my favorite ways of fishing this lake and I needed to be on the Western flats for this. So, back on the slow troll with the 5 wt. Along the way, a feisty 10” brookie inhaled the damsel nymph.
As soon as I arrived at the right location, I cast out the Callibaetis parachute and scanned for any surface action. It didn’t take long before I saw a swirl within long casting distance (wind working in my favor…). The fly sat for only a moment or two before a large head engulfed the fly – rainbow for sure. The fish jumped clear of the water. Then, it must have decided to head to the launch as it took out what remained of my fly line and was into the backing before I could slow it down. It then swam back at me so fast that I had to reel like a mad organ grinder to keep any tension on the line. The fish made one more run before I could slip it into the net, a 16” rainbow.
Cool, good start. Let’s do that again. But there truly wasn’t much of a Callibaetis hatch (consistent with a multi-year pattern of declines in Callibaetis hatches at this lake) and the only fish swirling at the surface were brookies that were after micro-caddis. But they would take the Callibaetis parachute if I dropped it in the neighborhood of a recent rise. After an hour or so of playing with small brookies, I slowly started to work my way east in the hopes of running into more rainbows. I spied a large swirl and threw the Callibaetis parachute in the vicinity. It disappeared in a big strike and then the leader broke. It was either a big brookie or a rainbow.
I decided to go a bit outside the box for a replacement. Some friends had fished Hirudinous Lake earlier in the week and caught a black ant emergence. They had two great days fishing different ant patterns, including the iconic sailor ant. But that had been several days ago and there were not ants on the water today. So, when I saw the sailor ant in the fly box while rummaging for another parachute, I thought that I would try it. And I’m glad that I did. Either cast directly or slowly trolled over the surface, the sailor ant attracted the attention of several bigger brookies, like this one.
With the wind picking up in the later afternoon, I anchored up near where the now-departed fleet has been earlier in the day. Out went the chironomids. It was slow, slow, slow. But I did hook and land two 6-8” brookies and one nice 16” rainbow. All three took the larger chironomid fly. A nice way to end the day.
All were released to fight another day.
Steve
Per usual, I had 3 rods rigged up: a 5 wt with a sink-tip line with a brown seal leach and a damsel nymph trailer, a 4 wt with a floating line with a size 14 black and white chironomid and a size 18 red and black chironomid, and a 3 wt with a floating line with a size 14 biot-bodied Callibaetis parachute. In the end, I caught fish on all three rods.
From the launch, I started out by slow trolling the 5 wt. out to the middle of the lake- no runs, no hits, no errors. I anchored up and threw out the chironomids, but there were Callibaetis spinners in the air and I saw a dun lifting off the water. Casting dry flies to cruising rainbows is one of my favorite ways of fishing this lake and I needed to be on the Western flats for this. So, back on the slow troll with the 5 wt. Along the way, a feisty 10” brookie inhaled the damsel nymph.
As soon as I arrived at the right location, I cast out the Callibaetis parachute and scanned for any surface action. It didn’t take long before I saw a swirl within long casting distance (wind working in my favor…). The fly sat for only a moment or two before a large head engulfed the fly – rainbow for sure. The fish jumped clear of the water. Then, it must have decided to head to the launch as it took out what remained of my fly line and was into the backing before I could slow it down. It then swam back at me so fast that I had to reel like a mad organ grinder to keep any tension on the line. The fish made one more run before I could slip it into the net, a 16” rainbow.
Cool, good start. Let’s do that again. But there truly wasn’t much of a Callibaetis hatch (consistent with a multi-year pattern of declines in Callibaetis hatches at this lake) and the only fish swirling at the surface were brookies that were after micro-caddis. But they would take the Callibaetis parachute if I dropped it in the neighborhood of a recent rise. After an hour or so of playing with small brookies, I slowly started to work my way east in the hopes of running into more rainbows. I spied a large swirl and threw the Callibaetis parachute in the vicinity. It disappeared in a big strike and then the leader broke. It was either a big brookie or a rainbow.
I decided to go a bit outside the box for a replacement. Some friends had fished Hirudinous Lake earlier in the week and caught a black ant emergence. They had two great days fishing different ant patterns, including the iconic sailor ant. But that had been several days ago and there were not ants on the water today. So, when I saw the sailor ant in the fly box while rummaging for another parachute, I thought that I would try it. And I’m glad that I did. Either cast directly or slowly trolled over the surface, the sailor ant attracted the attention of several bigger brookies, like this one.
With the wind picking up in the later afternoon, I anchored up near where the now-departed fleet has been earlier in the day. Out went the chironomids. It was slow, slow, slow. But I did hook and land two 6-8” brookies and one nice 16” rainbow. All three took the larger chironomid fly. A nice way to end the day.
All were released to fight another day.
Steve
Last edited: