May 28-30, 2011

The planted rainbows were mysteriously located primarily off the shoals over the deeper sections of the lake but in the first 10 vertical feet of the lake. What they were feeding on remains a mystery. Although there was some midge activity it was relatively insignificant compared to the massive vegetation—i.e. food source—beds available along the northern shoals. Using an intermediate fly line and a small olive woolly bugger (#12 3X long) and Denny Stillwater Nymph (#12 2X long) was successful, especially in the last couple of hours before sunset, with a two-inch strip retrieve. The rainbow I caught were mostly about 12 inches, healthy but somewhat slender for my taste. Not like those chunky rainbows that have scuds to feast on all day long. I did catch about three in the 14-16-inch class.

I planned this trip for the trout but my first fish, which I caught fly casting from the shoreline, was a seven-inch bluegill! I was initially upset and planned some revenge by keeping as many as I caught as a favor to the trout in the lake. Early the next morning I realized soon that my cooler was not big enough for the bluegill I was catching, most between six and eight inches long, not to mention a few six-inch largemouth bass and several small (6-8 inches) yellow perch. My son (age 11) had a lot of fun using a small nymph fly, with about three feet of 4X tippet, below a bubble, catching almost a bluegill per cast from certain spots along the shoreline. I noticed the largemouth bass I caught all pursued the fly when it was retrieved quickly.

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