I fished one of the local lakes yesterday. It wasn't Chopaka, but it could have been Lenice, considering how windy it was. It just blew and blew and blew. But since I was already there, I launched my pram and loaded my gear into it. Following my advice from the confidence thread, I couldn't see any sign of bugs in all the wind chop. So I tied on a bead head leech of the Billy variety and hooked a fish on my first cast. So I stuck with that fly, considering that the wind was blowing me way down the lake. Unsure that my anchor would hold, I decided to harl (troll) the fly for awhile. I'd never fished here since I got the Garmin depth finder, so it seemed appropriate to reconnoiter and figure out where the shallow and deep places are, not to mention that there wasn't much I could do that was under my control anyway.
So I rowed around the lake, hooking fish here and there, occasionally marking a solitary fish on the Garmin. I even brought to hand an Ira-sized LMB that must have been lost in the water column. I marked a couple clusters of fish and thought either would be a good place to anchor up and begin fishing chironomids. But given the wind conditions I was unable to row over the same spot twice to locate those fish, so I continued my reconnaissance mission. Unable to focus on fishing, I kept dragging the leech through the water and periodically hooking a trout. I noticed some impressively nice homes along the shoreline, which got me to wondering what a person could do that is legal that would gain enough money to obtain such a nice house.
And then I marked another cluster of fish that was sorta' in the lee of a point that reduced the wind effect some. So I dropped the hook, and it mostly held. So I switched the leech pattern for a balanced leech and a chironomid and straight-lined them to 21'. Having paid for a 2-pole endorsement, I set up my chironomid rod with an iracator and super-secret chironomid pattern set for 11' because I marked some random fish swimming around at 11 and 12' deep. Seeing how's it was past lunch time, I reached for my sammich, which caused the straight line rod to start bobbing. That fish took extra coaxing cuz it was snagged by the chironomid. Which caused me to ponder if the fish made a pass at the balanced leech and got snagged by the chronnie, or did it make a pass at the chronnie, but missed and got snagged. I finished eating and decided to cast and strip since the straight line got no more bites. I put the bead head leech back on my leader and made some casts and hooked another fish. I caught 3 or 4 doing this, and the last one was a nice 14" rainbow. It was hooked deeper than I've ever hooked a trout on this fly pattern. I thought it had swallowed the fly, but it turned out to be hooked on the deepest gill arch and was bleeding badly. So I decided to keep it, realizing that it was the first trout I've kept since 2010, the year that so many larger than average sea run cutthroat returned to the Cowlitz River. Having retained one trout I decided that I should try for another decent sized one.
Either the wind had shifted or I had drifted out of my leeward protection, so I had to deal with gear, two rods and an anchor line. So I dealt with that and decided to resume trolling to pick up another fish. If anything, the wind had picked up speed, and the wind chop was now just shy of small white caps. I decided to row back to the launch. Naturally I couldn't hook another fish. At the launch I checked my watch and noted that I'd been on the water only 4 hours. But it seemed like a very long time. I ain't designed to row around in that crap all day. I put the pram back on the trailer, put my gear away, and headed home. I had no camera with me, so I took the usual number of photos.
I put the trout on the BBQ and added it to our dinner. At 14" it wasn't a lot of fish, but it had been in the lake to get most of its growth on natural feed instead of pellets. It was pretty fair eating. And this morning I feel like my shoulders could use a spa day.
So I rowed around the lake, hooking fish here and there, occasionally marking a solitary fish on the Garmin. I even brought to hand an Ira-sized LMB that must have been lost in the water column. I marked a couple clusters of fish and thought either would be a good place to anchor up and begin fishing chironomids. But given the wind conditions I was unable to row over the same spot twice to locate those fish, so I continued my reconnaissance mission. Unable to focus on fishing, I kept dragging the leech through the water and periodically hooking a trout. I noticed some impressively nice homes along the shoreline, which got me to wondering what a person could do that is legal that would gain enough money to obtain such a nice house.
And then I marked another cluster of fish that was sorta' in the lee of a point that reduced the wind effect some. So I dropped the hook, and it mostly held. So I switched the leech pattern for a balanced leech and a chironomid and straight-lined them to 21'. Having paid for a 2-pole endorsement, I set up my chironomid rod with an iracator and super-secret chironomid pattern set for 11' because I marked some random fish swimming around at 11 and 12' deep. Seeing how's it was past lunch time, I reached for my sammich, which caused the straight line rod to start bobbing. That fish took extra coaxing cuz it was snagged by the chironomid. Which caused me to ponder if the fish made a pass at the balanced leech and got snagged by the chronnie, or did it make a pass at the chronnie, but missed and got snagged. I finished eating and decided to cast and strip since the straight line got no more bites. I put the bead head leech back on my leader and made some casts and hooked another fish. I caught 3 or 4 doing this, and the last one was a nice 14" rainbow. It was hooked deeper than I've ever hooked a trout on this fly pattern. I thought it had swallowed the fly, but it turned out to be hooked on the deepest gill arch and was bleeding badly. So I decided to keep it, realizing that it was the first trout I've kept since 2010, the year that so many larger than average sea run cutthroat returned to the Cowlitz River. Having retained one trout I decided that I should try for another decent sized one.
Either the wind had shifted or I had drifted out of my leeward protection, so I had to deal with gear, two rods and an anchor line. So I dealt with that and decided to resume trolling to pick up another fish. If anything, the wind had picked up speed, and the wind chop was now just shy of small white caps. I decided to row back to the launch. Naturally I couldn't hook another fish. At the launch I checked my watch and noted that I'd been on the water only 4 hours. But it seemed like a very long time. I ain't designed to row around in that crap all day. I put the pram back on the trailer, put my gear away, and headed home. I had no camera with me, so I took the usual number of photos.
I put the trout on the BBQ and added it to our dinner. At 14" it wasn't a lot of fish, but it had been in the lake to get most of its growth on natural feed instead of pellets. It was pretty fair eating. And this morning I feel like my shoulders could use a spa day.
