Flymph
Life of the Party
Chopaka lake in the 70s and 80s had much dumber trout. The May Fly hatch did not come off until late June. Prior to the hatch the above middle fly tied with a strand of dark olive chenille caught plenty of willing fish. Once the hatch came I switched to the size 12 Gray Humpy which was all that was necessary for a dozen or more rainbows to 3 lbs and the odd Atlantic (snake shaped) Salmon. A Fenwick glass rod with a WF5 and a home built Lamigalss with a WF7 20ft Sink tip both mounted with Pflueger Medalist reels worked just fine.
Here in the NCW we look at Mt. Thomas which is 7,000 plus ft in elevation for snow pack. Back then it started showing snow about the same time school started and was finally bare by mid to late July. Chopak's May fly Hatch lasted well into early fall with surface temps favorable all summer long. All the local lakes could be fished throughout the summer without the fear of warm surface temps!
We were fortunate in having a Steelhead stream right in our backyard which is an easy walk from my home. About mid October the Steelhead starting following lots of Salmon. The bottom fly above was the only fly that caught up to three fish in one morning. Lots of whitefish in between the hasty wait for a Steelhead. When the sun was almost overhead I switched to the 5 wt and the Gray Humpy for residual Steelhead and the larger Whitefish.
River temps remained below 65 degrees all summer so, on boring August days, you could always count on a few Whitefish coming up to the Gray Humpy. Life was good and for some stupid reason I thought this would last forever.
The Steelhead are long gone, both the river and lakes heat up too fast for favorable releases, and Chopaka is a circus. I am sure there are those who will disagree and I am happy for their success. And yes, "Fish are much Smarter Now".
