Fishing Report -April 6-9

[Rolan Duffield]

spent 3 days fly fishing and enjoying the company with my son David. Weather was really pleasant in the upper 70's though did have some very strong winds on Wed and Thursday afternoon that made it somewhat tough to see a strike.

I normally prefer to fish using a fly rod regardless of water conditions. When they ran four units, fishing was tough though with two units we managed to have good success fishing an egg fly with a ''Peppy" (gray scud) dropper about 12 to 18 inches below the egg fly. On the first and third days, the trout seemed to take the peppy fly almost every time. On the second day of our trip the egg fly and peppy shared about an equal amount of Trout caught.

Two units of running water is about six to eight feet of extra depth of water and is fishable providing you adapt to the conditions. First, you need to lengthen the leader to at least 10 to 12 feet so the fly is on the bottom where the fish are. Expect the fish to be on the bottom of the lake and most likely in the slower water. Cast at a 45 degree downstream angle. This allows your fly to drop quicker to get it on the bottom. You may need to adjust the fly or line weight so your float travels about the same speed as the boat. Strikes in fast moving water can be very suttle or may be a very violent strike. I remember one fish that almost tore the rod from my hands because it hit so hard.

We did motor down to the Roark Creek and fish in the slower backwater using 1/100 gigs under a float at a depth of 4 to 5 feet with good success . Color of the jig didn't seem to make any difference.