Quincy Lake 3/24-25

I'll sum up Quincy Lake so far this season compared to last season. HORRIBLE. Two days and ZERO fish. On Thursday my friend fished Quincy with no hook-ups. Mostly indicator fishing with multiple chironomid patterns. I met him yesterday and we fished 4.5 hours. The finder was showing fish but the results were like Thursday. Now, some of you are thinking... well these two guys suck at fly fishing. Maybe. But, everyone we talked to hadn't caught any fish on both days... except for some guys who managed a few fish on an olive wooly bugger pattern. Very little surface activity and not much bug activity.

Everyone has their thoughts on why the lake is fishing so poorly... we experienced a very long hot summer last year (100's) starting the end of May (fry kill?) followed by a pretty cold winter and late ice off. So far spring has been cool as well... last week being the first with days in the 50's. Burke is fishing poorly as well.

I still haven't given up on Quincy, but if you are on the west side I'm not sure I'd drive over to fish it quite yet. I live close... and I'm a glutton for punishment... so I'll hit again next weekend LOL.
 
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Cornpop said:
I'll sum up Quincy Lake so far this season compared to last season. HORRIBLE. Two days and ZERO fish. On Thursday my friend fished Quincy with no hook-ups. Mostly indicator fishing with multiple chironomid patterns. I met him yesterday and we fished 4.5 hours. The finder was showing fish but the results were like Thursday. Now, some of you are thinking... well these two guys suck at fly fishing. Maybe. But, everyone we talked to hadn't caught any fish on both days... except for some guys who managed a few fish on an olive wooly bugger pattern. Very little surface activity and not much bug activity.

Everyone has their thoughts on why the lake is fishing so poorly... we experienced a very long hot summer last year (100's) starting the end of May (fry kill?) followed by a pretty cold winter and late ice off. So far spring has been cool as well... last week being the first with days in the 50's. Burke is fishing poorly as well.

I still haven't given up on Quincy, but if you are on the west side I'm not sure I'd drive over to fish it quite yet. I live close... and I'm a glutton for punishment... so I'll hit again next weekend LOL.
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Temps??
 
The nearby lakes fished slower than expected after ice out as well. As the water temps have come up in the last 10 days, and the lakes are done turning over, the fishing has picked up quite a bit.
 
This is not about you not being good. This lake has struggled with fry survival the last couple of years.

I fished it with another member before most did, by hiking into the far back section that was open right after the opener. We never landed a single fish under the indicator.

We worked hard and managed about 24 fish between us, but we had to freaking work for them, which has become a bit more normal for the lake.

All but two of the fish were 16” plus, not a good sign for next years hold overs.
 
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I spoke with a Fish Biologist from Grant County after a very slow day there in March. The biologist said there were more than 70 days last year with water temps over 70°. Their thought is a lot of those lakes had summer kill and they don't necessarily have the fish to restock them this year.
 
GRSMITH51 said:
I spoke with a Fish Biologist from Grant County after a very slow day there in March. The biologist said there were more than 70 days last year with water temps over 70°. Their thought is a lot of those lakes had summer kill and they don't necessarily have the fish to restock them this year.
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They haven't rehabbed anything in I think 6 years either....
 
"...except for some guys who managed a few fish on an olive wooly bugger pattern"

LOL... that might have been us! A buddy and I fished Quincy on March 24th for a few hours, and did good, but sure had to work for them. The fish we did manage to catch were nice, fat, holdover fish. (and great fun on a 1-2wt bamboo fly rod!) We had heard rumors it was real slow, which was surprising because I thought it's usually stocked for the local fishing tournament. (the previous weekend) Don't think they did that this year..
 

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Spent a couple hours on Quincy yesterday. Blanked, not even a bump, and didn't mark much, no risers. No other fishermen while I was there.
A very different experience than the last couple years, for sure
 
My wife and I fished Quincy for a couple of hours in the morning on March 21st, and it was dead. We moved to Burke at lunchtime and fished it for the afternoon. I landed 5 fish in about three hours. My wife got 2. All really nice holdover fish 16”-21”. The bank guys weren’t doing well. They all cheered when they saw me hook up.

Hopefully these lakes will come back in the future, but this year doesn’t seem like it is worth another trip.
 
Had a Similar experience to @Pez Vela when @Irafly and I fished the part of the lake that wasn’t frozen in early March. Good fish but not as many as usual. Had zero success fishing indicators, which is not normal. Covering good areas casting/stripping leeches worked, but after a day of doing that, it felt like work 😁
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And then at the end of the day Ira provided a good reminder on float tube safety by tipping himself out into a frigid cold lake. Yay for PFDs!
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troutpocket said:
Had a Similar experience to @Pez Vela when @Irafly and I fished the part of the lake that wasn’t frozen in early March. Good fish but not as many as usual. Had zero success fishing indicators, which is not normal. Covering good areas casting/stripping leeches worked, but after a day of doing that, it felt like work 😁
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And then at the end of the day Ira provided a good reminder on float tube safety by tipping himself out into a frigid cold lake. Yay for PFDs!
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I thought for sure that my raft was switched to ice breaker mode, my bad.
 
Pez Vela said:
"...except for some guys who managed a few fish on an olive wooly bugger pattern"

LOL... that might have been us! A buddy and I fished Quincy on March 24th for a few hours, and did good, but sure had to work for them. The fish we did manage to catch were nice, fat, holdover fish. (and great fun on a 1-2wt bamboo fly rod!) We had heard rumors it was real slow, which was surprising because I thought it's usually stocked for the local fishing tournament. (the previous weekend) Don't think they did that this year..
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Beautiful rod. Sounds like it did well. Do you just end up having to play the fish a little longer due to the light rod? I'm assuming you just cast downwind if it starts to blow....?
 
Kado said:
Beautiful rod. Sounds like it did well. Do you just end up having to play the fish a little longer due to the light rod? I'm assuming you just cast downwind if it starts to blow....?
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Yeah... not a rod in the wind. I'm lucky to get 30'-40' casts with it with no wind, but it turns smaller fish into monsters. Big fish just take longer, and the soft tip keeps me from breaking them off. Seems like the big fish just give up, rather than becoming exhausted... and on the release, they seem none the worse for the wear. I can do 6x and 7x tippets, but an 8x breaks trying to tie the knot!
 
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