Well after all the intel I got for this lake, there were a couple of things that were spot on;
The day I arrived I had just started to pitch my tent when the heavens opened, and the wind picked up to welcome me to the lake. I got soaked or at least my waterproofs got very wet. I fished for a little bit that day but apart from one jab while pulling in my rig, nada. The next day it blew a Northerly down the lake and so it took a while to get onto the lake. The mayfly hatches were sporadic, and it was still bloody cold. I managed to pick up a couple on a comparadun which I love because they are pretty much unsinkable and represent a good mayfly. I did this off the shore as my buddy was down messing with his boat and lo, there was a nice hatch along the camp side of the lake as long as the winds were lowish.
The positivish side to a fish kill is that in a rich lake, the survivors get big, very big and very fast. The fish I caught were often pigly, a trend that continued thought the trip but hard to find. Most have a beautiful red stripe, in great shape, fierce, and fit and most were males which was odd to me. I winkled out a smaller fish later on a chironomid, but getting a 22” fish on a 3 wt using a dry does it for me. Next day it was an even stronger southerly, there were lots of whitecaps and in the am I went up the hill to get more firewood with my chain saw, did I say it was cold? I got onto the lake around 12 and hit the hatch. This day I did slightly better with 6 fish to dries and later on ‘mids, all beauties.
Next day it was looking a bit better re no big wind, and even a warm glowing thing from time to time. Then it happened, some rain, not unexpected there and then behind me I heard this terrible roaring down the valley, I looked around expecting to see a massive squall but then I was in the hail, the first pieces were a good ¼’ and made a racket, this went on for about 10 minutes, slower to rain and then back to sun. Classic weather for here.
As ‘mid fishing was duff I went to nymphing, especially when I saw the number of teneral nymphs hatching out on my boat, so I stuck on some damsel like imitations and tried all over, nada. Switched up to Callibaetis nymphs and still nothing. The sailboats came up and so I got a few on dries but a breeze and the sun meant they hatch didn’t last for long. I decide to fish naked on a long 20’ odd leader, the wind dropped, and I drifted in ~18’ of water with the odd light pull of the oars. This got me a few fish and another 6 fish day.
The next was my best, got some early on mids and then the hatch lasted for about 1 ½ hrs as a wind came up and it rained so the flies were stuck, the challenge with loads of flies and few fish was getting noticed. I found an area with a lot of cruising fish and had 6 and lost as many others as they bend out my hooks a fair bit, Fulling Mill not so good but a lot of these fish were big and all were very strong and took off in a hurry toward the tules and/or weeds. With the hatch gone I managed to pick off a few fish about 2-5’ from the shore which was a hoot The mid fishing was a little better that day and I felt I’d done well in tough fishing but the hatch was stellar.
My Windy report noted 1-2 kt SE for the last day, that was total bollocks it blew a steady 15-20 kt all day and fishing was again very tough. Mids- meh, nymphs – bleh, and got a couple on dries. As it was my last night I decided to go out after dinner as the wind dropped and the camp fish were rising. Three smaller fish came to Quigley and so made the day a bit better. TBH, fishing the camp rise would likely be the most productive but rowing a 11’6” Journey in the wind is akin to rowing an old Buick with sticks and I was thrashed and the evening camp fish were smaller.
Overall, the lake levels are of concern to me (and likely many others) and possibly a reason for the fish kill if some fish do not hold in the deeps when it’s iced over. The camp sites wee not packed like they usually are so the word is out. Another was the once visible strips of marl in the South end are all gone, it is a carpet of fine weed. As a biologic, that rots under the ice and so may be part of the kill problem I don’t know. An unusual observation was that with several on the dry, I have to just cut the leader as the barbless fly was deeply buried. The few fish I bothered to pump had either tiny green ‘mids, like a 30 or the odd bigger 16ish black and also some duns and some damsel nymphs. My memorable fish was the pee fish where I cast out my dry and was taking a leak, it disappeared in a huge rise but my hands were full. Once done, I pulled the line tight and got a lovely hen fish of about 20’.
Finally and most importantly to me, the reason I persist in going there when there may be better elsewhere is the comradeship with my friends and the camp they run is just awesome. Even with tough conditions, we ate and drank like royalty, had warm fires, stayed dry, and had a lot of great stories and laughs. I could not have better friends to fish with. We can’t do it forever, but I’ll make the very most of it while I can.
Dave
- It was really cold – colder than a witches tit at night and early morning.
- It appears that there was a fish kill. I saw quite a few dead fish at the south end in the shallow water but the overall lake water was down a lot, see photo later on and so I did not really bother down there too much as the west side was very shallow in a lot of places.
The day I arrived I had just started to pitch my tent when the heavens opened, and the wind picked up to welcome me to the lake. I got soaked or at least my waterproofs got very wet. I fished for a little bit that day but apart from one jab while pulling in my rig, nada. The next day it blew a Northerly down the lake and so it took a while to get onto the lake. The mayfly hatches were sporadic, and it was still bloody cold. I managed to pick up a couple on a comparadun which I love because they are pretty much unsinkable and represent a good mayfly. I did this off the shore as my buddy was down messing with his boat and lo, there was a nice hatch along the camp side of the lake as long as the winds were lowish.
The positivish side to a fish kill is that in a rich lake, the survivors get big, very big and very fast. The fish I caught were often pigly, a trend that continued thought the trip but hard to find. Most have a beautiful red stripe, in great shape, fierce, and fit and most were males which was odd to me. I winkled out a smaller fish later on a chironomid, but getting a 22” fish on a 3 wt using a dry does it for me. Next day it was an even stronger southerly, there were lots of whitecaps and in the am I went up the hill to get more firewood with my chain saw, did I say it was cold? I got onto the lake around 12 and hit the hatch. This day I did slightly better with 6 fish to dries and later on ‘mids, all beauties.
Next day it was looking a bit better re no big wind, and even a warm glowing thing from time to time. Then it happened, some rain, not unexpected there and then behind me I heard this terrible roaring down the valley, I looked around expecting to see a massive squall but then I was in the hail, the first pieces were a good ¼’ and made a racket, this went on for about 10 minutes, slower to rain and then back to sun. Classic weather for here.
As ‘mid fishing was duff I went to nymphing, especially when I saw the number of teneral nymphs hatching out on my boat, so I stuck on some damsel like imitations and tried all over, nada. Switched up to Callibaetis nymphs and still nothing. The sailboats came up and so I got a few on dries but a breeze and the sun meant they hatch didn’t last for long. I decide to fish naked on a long 20’ odd leader, the wind dropped, and I drifted in ~18’ of water with the odd light pull of the oars. This got me a few fish and another 6 fish day.
The next was my best, got some early on mids and then the hatch lasted for about 1 ½ hrs as a wind came up and it rained so the flies were stuck, the challenge with loads of flies and few fish was getting noticed. I found an area with a lot of cruising fish and had 6 and lost as many others as they bend out my hooks a fair bit, Fulling Mill not so good but a lot of these fish were big and all were very strong and took off in a hurry toward the tules and/or weeds. With the hatch gone I managed to pick off a few fish about 2-5’ from the shore which was a hoot The mid fishing was a little better that day and I felt I’d done well in tough fishing but the hatch was stellar.
My Windy report noted 1-2 kt SE for the last day, that was total bollocks it blew a steady 15-20 kt all day and fishing was again very tough. Mids- meh, nymphs – bleh, and got a couple on dries. As it was my last night I decided to go out after dinner as the wind dropped and the camp fish were rising. Three smaller fish came to Quigley and so made the day a bit better. TBH, fishing the camp rise would likely be the most productive but rowing a 11’6” Journey in the wind is akin to rowing an old Buick with sticks and I was thrashed and the evening camp fish were smaller.
Overall, the lake levels are of concern to me (and likely many others) and possibly a reason for the fish kill if some fish do not hold in the deeps when it’s iced over. The camp sites wee not packed like they usually are so the word is out. Another was the once visible strips of marl in the South end are all gone, it is a carpet of fine weed. As a biologic, that rots under the ice and so may be part of the kill problem I don’t know. An unusual observation was that with several on the dry, I have to just cut the leader as the barbless fly was deeply buried. The few fish I bothered to pump had either tiny green ‘mids, like a 30 or the odd bigger 16ish black and also some duns and some damsel nymphs. My memorable fish was the pee fish where I cast out my dry and was taking a leak, it disappeared in a huge rise but my hands were full. Once done, I pulled the line tight and got a lovely hen fish of about 20’.
Finally and most importantly to me, the reason I persist in going there when there may be better elsewhere is the comradeship with my friends and the camp they run is just awesome. Even with tough conditions, we ate and drank like royalty, had warm fires, stayed dry, and had a lot of great stories and laughs. I could not have better friends to fish with. We can’t do it forever, but I’ll make the very most of it while I can.
Dave
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but not sure if only 14s count 
