Report

[BFTMASTER]

Okay guys, parking lot is full every weekend and nobody has a report?

[JCWolfe]

I've only been a couple times in the last six weeks. With the lake turning over and dissolved oxygen up, the non generation flow is really low. I liked the flows we had back in early fall but the D.O. levels were lower back then. Midges are what has worked with location being key. A lot of other people I know are saying Black zebra midge, hares ear, and wooly buggers are taking fish. Some places are better than others but you won't know until you try them. The two times I did go, we didn't see any fish being taken. Fishing was tough with only a few being taken in our limited time fishing. I believe the weather conditions played a part in the tough conditions as there was really high pressure those days, well over 30.

[asap52]

My son and I went the Saturday before Christmas and did well. We were at the Watts area and the flow was very slow. We started fishing midges and they did well for awhile but what worked the best that day was a size 16 sowbug. After the midge bite slowed I started searching for what they wanted and that was the ticket. For me when the flow is that slow, sowbugs seem to be the ticket.

Tight lines,

Corky

[TheTugistheDrug]

Fished last weekend for a short while. Two of us landed fish on wooly buggers and gold bead head hares ear. Saw MANY fish being taken by others. We were fishing the gravel lot below the dam, far side of the island. There was a spin caster near us who must have caught a fish on every cast for about thirty minutes...not sure what he was using.

Water was low but th fish were biting.

Good luck!

[benalt]

I was there on the 2nd-3th and had some spurts of luck - everything I caught was from the gravel parking lot below the dam. I had the best luck in the glassy pool right below the little island there - caught maybe 5 or 6 both days. I'm still a novice fly fisherman, and don't have a full grasp on all of the intricacies of the sport, so take what i say with a grain of salt.

The trout were sipping from the surface in the mornings, and I caught a few with a little green nymph with a parachute that was up in the film. Also had a lot of luck with gray/blue and black emerger nymphs, like size 20/22. I got a couple with a size 18 bead head pheasant tail , and had a couple of takes on a San Juan worm, but pulled too hard when setting the hook (still not used to the super light tackle)

[fishfeeder]

thanks for your report, you sound better than a novice to me. I am a novice and the couple times I've been lately to the LIR, it seems I can't get a very good drift with the low flow and the wind out of the south opposite the flow. I use an indicator, but is it better to do without the indicator with low flow and south wind, just try and keep a tight line to detect a strike?

[benalt]

yeah, when the wind was blowing it was a little tough. It was only bad for a little bit.

I couldn't say if it's better or not to use a strike indicator in those conditions. I was using a mix of football strike indicators with a double nymph rig and small dry flies with nymphs attached to the hook. The former seemed to get a few more hits, but the latter was MUCH easier to cast in the wind, and seemed to have a better drift.

[Tbcmusiconline]

I went on Friday. The weather was absolutely perfect. Got to WATTS area around 10:00am. Had a great day fishing. Caughts over 50 trout in the 5 hours I was there. At one point I caught over 25 fish in the same area in less than an hour. They were hitting on every cast.

Fished a #16 beadhead pheasant tail nymph about 20 inches below a strike indicator. I set the depth so that the fly was only a few inches off the bottom.

[DaddyO]

If the water is too slow for a drift, create your own. Position yourself down stream of the run you want to fish. Cast upstream and do a slow finger retrieve. If the wind picks up and you have some chop on the water, think about stripping a soft hackle.

Good Luck, Tight Lines and Have Fun!

Or as Hank would say, "Snap It!"

[BFTMASTER]

Thanks guys for the reports, since it will be a couple of weeks before I can head down again.