East/Paulina

Went up that way last week, with the intention of renewing my friendship with East Lake, and attempting to figure out Paulina (had not fished there before). Arrived to wind, wind, more wind on Day 1; fished from 1:30 - 4:30 after waiting out the wind for a couple of hours, and caught the usual mix of kokanee and rainbows, nothing big. Set up camp at Paulina, had dinner then went out to try an evening on Paulina, and immediately caught an 18" brown. "Wow! what a great lake!", my brain says.
Ten minutes lateral, I added a strong 16" rainbow, "Wow, it really is a good lake!" Then 45 minutes later another rainbow. "Okay, not a bad evening". Decided to stay at Paulina the next morning and got zilch, not a tap, not a grab, nothing. Tried everything from mids to beetles and ants, to leeches, etc. Fished East in the afternoon and did OK, same as the first day. Fished Paulina that evening and got three 14" or so bows, two on ant patterns. Fished East on the last day, and was fortunate to get in the middle of a solid callibaetis hatch. Many mid-size bows, a bunch of small kokanee, on PT nymphs, then added a few small browns and rainbows on emergers, then, got the last two fish being a 18" rainbow and a 19" brown on emergers, as well. Some shore fishers were doing equally as well when the fish were looking up. All in all, I learned that I don't like Paulina a lot (all other fly fishers were experiencing the same or worse results). There's just not a lot of places where the water is shallow enough to fish effectively, even with a type 5 line. The fish didn't seem very surface oriented, even in the middle of a hellacious midge hatch that lasted about 30 minutes or so. Maybe they look up for callibaetis when that happens, and I understand that they will take grasshoppers along one shoreline in August, but not sure I want to try to time either of those. Maybe it's stocked with catchables later in the year; I haven't checked the stocking info, but I don't wanna catch 9"ers.

I'll definitely get back to East next year, and will not be tempted to try Paulina.

 

[@Dryflyphotography]

Thanks for the report. We visit Sunriver often and I'm trying to figure those two lakes out as well. Had a couple very good mornings on East when the callibeatis hatches came off, but haven't done well otherwise. We tried Paulina last July when the heat wave put the fish off on East and caught a handful of small fish but I never felt like I figured much out. Perhaps that's the way both lakes will fish...hit or miss. Or, maybe I'll get them more dialed in and have consistent success. Hoping for the latter.

 

[iveofione]

Went up that way last week, with the intention of renewing my friendship with East Lake, and attempting to figure out Paulina (had not fished there before). Arrived to wind, wind, more wind on Day 1; fished from 1:30 - 4:30 after waiting out the wind for a couple of hours, and caught the usual mix of kokanee and rainbows, nothing big. Set up camp at Paulina, had dinner then went out to try an evening on Paulina, and immediately caught an 18" brown. "Wow! what a great lake!", my brain says.
Ten minutes lateral, I added a strong 16" rainbow, "Wow, it really is a good lake!" Then 45 minutes later another rainbow. "Okay, not a bad evening". Decided to stay at Paulina the next morning and got zilch, not a tap, not a grab, nothing. Tried everything from mids to beetles and ants, to leeches, etc. Fished East in the afternoon and did OK, same as the first day. Fished Paulina that evening and got three 14" or so bows, two on ant patterns. Fished East on the last day, and was fortunate to get in the middle of a solid callibaetis hatch. Many mid-size bows, a bunch of small kokanee, on PT nymphs, then added a few small browns and rainbows on emergers, then, got the last two fish being a 18" rainbow and a 19" brown on emergers, as well. Some shore fishers were doing equally as well when the fish were looking up. All in all, I learned that I don't like Paulina a lot (all other fly fishers were experiencing the same or worse results). There's just not a lot of places where the water is shallow enough to fish effectively, even with a type 5 line. The fish didn't seem very surface oriented, even in the middle of a hellacious midge hatch that lasted about 30 minutes or so. Maybe they look up for callibaetis when that happens, and I understand that they will take grasshoppers along one shoreline in August, but not sure I want to try to time either of those. Maybe it's stocked with catchables later in the year; I haven't checked the stocking info, but I don't wanna catch 9"ers.

I'll definitely get back to East next year, and will not be tempted to try Paulina.

Good call on Paulina, I have never found it to be a big producer. East is another story, I have fished it in spring when it was still partially iced over, in summer when the crowds were there and in fall when the first snow fell. I prefer late in the season when the crowds have evaporated and the fish sense the oncoming winter.

Do some hiking around the crater's perimeter, as I recall there are some spectacular obsidian outflows to be seen.

 

[GAT]

After decades of fishing up there, I could have warned you about Paulina.

East can be quite good during the Fall when everyone goes hunting and ignores fishing. No crowds with a lot of hungry browns that feed all day.

 

[steelheardr99]

Fished Paulina for the first-time last week and it was cold and windy all day, Did not see any fish moving and did not find any. Will have to give it another try sometime.

 

[EBT]

After decades of fishing up there, I could have warned you about Paulina.

East can be quite good during the Fall when everyone goes hunting and ignores fishing. No crowds with a lot of hungry browns that feed all day.

Thanks for the tip on fall fishing, Gene.