Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

This fishing report will be much like the last one. Not much has changed except our generation schedule is much more unpredictible. SWA posts a schedule on their internet site each day but that's beginning to be unreliable to some degree. Then when they run water, it's up and down all during the day and night. Each hour, the numbers run from 25 to 70 mw which translates to 3 to 5 feet of water in the upper end. Of course, downstream that's not as much water flow but when they pick up flow, it knocks lose moss from the bottom and for the following 30 minutes or so, it's hard to keep it off your line, fly, hook or lure. No real big deal... the upside is our trout usually start feeding when they increase flows.

Saying that, fishing has been pretty good this past week but those pesky little rainbows are still showing up on our lines. Some rainbows we're seeing are as small as 5 inches long! They're kinda cute but . . . that's not what most of us are after. I'm sure they make good brown trout bait! May be that's what we should be using for big trout- rainbow colored flies and lures. Wait . . . that's what we use!

In the mornings, there's quite a few rainbows midging the surface especially around floating leaves. In the fall when the leaves start dropping, leaves form a line towards the middle of the lake. Rainbows are draw to these leaves and feed on midges and other tiny insects on the surface. I target these trout with either my fly rod or spin cast equipment and throw a small spinner or a jig and float. When fly fishing, I use a zibra midge under an indicator, black or red in size #14. The point is to keep whatever you're using close to the surface where the trout are holding and feeding. Look for midging rainbows from the Landing clear up past Lookout.

The most popular live bait has been Gulp and night crawlers. We're still using one white egg plus another color like pink, orange or yellow. Still using air injected night crawlers and worms are catching larger rainbows on average. Four-pound line is still ok to use. If they're running water, use just enough weight to get to the bottom and that's all. Too much weight and you won't be able to feel the bite from bouncing on the bottom.

In the trophy area, there's a bunch of rainbows but again, lots of them are smaller than 10 inches. It's fun, non-stop action at times with an occasional larger rainbow being caugh and releasedt. You can see quite a few trophy rainbows swimming around but it seems they've gotten an education this summer. Steve Dicky has been guiding later in the day and reports when they run water, he's catching bigger trout on scuds drifting them on the bottom from Lookout down through the flats. So it seems these larger rainbows are waiting for generation to eat. Stands to reason, scuds are shaken from the gravel when the water starts and are easy pickin's. Gray, tan or brown have been the colors of choice and with water running, #12 and #14's are working but then it's off, go smaller - #14 and #16's. Number 16 black zebra midges are also working under an indicator. Target midging rainbows on the shallow flats and set the indicator shallow (6 inches) or fish them in the channel and set the indicator deeper (3-5 feet deep). Micro jigs are also working. We're using 6x tippet or 2-pound test, setting the float 4-5 feet deep and using tan, olive or black 1/2 micros. They've been taking the jigs gently (is that a fishing term?!), barely moving the float so watch closely and be quick on the set.

And the most important thing---look for chop on the water! We chased riffled water most of the day the other day cause that's where we could get bit. Fish always feed better under a choppy surface verses a smooth, slick surface. That goes for almost all game fish.

Below the dam, we're seeing more and more brown trout show up for the dance. No huge browns yet but quite a few good trophies at or over 20 inches. There are also some equally large rainbows up there too and some of our guys are catching them. Bruce Omans of High Ridge spent a week fly fishing for trophies and struck gold several times. He told me he loves to sight fish and it looks like he's successful at it! Now what exact fly(s) he's using I'm not sure of but I do see a large, dark streamer hanging out of at least one fish's mouth. These trout see allot of small scuds and midges but not as many bigger streamers in comparison. Something to think about.

Night fly fishing is picking up. With the arrival of the brown trout, also arriving are higher numbers of anglers. I went last night with two good friends and were not surprised when we arrived to see a dozen cars in the parking lot. Walking down to the water, we were greeted by a line of guys wading all along the area between outlets #1 and #2. We found a place alittle bit aways from the crowds and started fishing about 10:30 pm. I tied on a #6 brown hibernator, Duane had on 2 flies in tandem--a white bunny leech and a white cone head leech and Mona Cheri has on . . . well I'm not sure to tell you the truth. But we all caught fish- all rainbows and all less than 19 inches. We were startled (understatement!!) by the horn at midnight which pretty much ended our night.

The fly I was using, the hibernator, had a small bead for weight but even with the bead, the fly didn't sink that fast. There's always a bit of slow current up there so when I made my cast either staight across the current or angled downstream at a 45 degree angle, I let it set for a count of 10 or more before starting my retreive. About half my strikes came before I started stripping and they were hard takes. The other strikes came within the first 3-5 strips. My strips were slow and I paused inbetween each one. I did touch bottom but not very often. Hope this detail helps.

One other thing I will mention. I couldn't help but notice that anglers last night were shining their lights in the water looking for trout. Also when they had to adjust or tiw on a new fly, they weren't careful where their light was pointing. Fish are spooked of night at night. When leaving at time and no one is around, I take my light and look around in the shallow water below the dam just to see what's out there. Fish, in particular big fish, always dart around when I hit them with my light. Some completely leave the area. These night hallogen lights are very bright and throw out a beam that can be seen for many yards around and throw in a little fog and you're lighting up the whole area around you even if you're not pointing it in the water. My advice--turn your back to the lake and keep your light close to you when you're tying a new fly on. Be observant where your light is pointing when walking around and don't shine it over the lake and especially don't point it out over the lake at other anglers. There's enough ambiant light down there you can see bodies in the dark and usually when you're walking close to someone in the dark, they will click their light on for a second to give you a heads up where they are.