Fishing Local Water

Yesterday I managed to sneak out and fish a local lake with friend Brian Wiebe. With my travels so far this is only the second time I have been able to venture out locally. I was glad Brian motivated me to get onto the water.

Weather was overcast with a slight breeze from the north east. We were just experiencing the last of a low pressure system that has been bombarding us with rain and wind for the past few days. Thankfully the sunny weather is returning as I type.

I chose to fish out of my Outcast Pac 9000 as the launch was a bit dicey for my 14 foot jon boat. The PAC 9000 is a beautiful platform to fish from, very spacious and comfortable.

My Pac 9000 loaded and ready to go

We rowed down to the far end. As I got my exercise in for the day I asked myself, “Why is the fishing always the best at the far end of the lake?” About 10 minutes or so later I was in position ready to go, double anchored in 10 feet of water. 

During my paddle I noticed lots of small chironomid shucks on the water along with a few #14 Callibaetis duns. Taking my observations into account I began with #14 black and red Ice Cream Cone coupled with at #14 Gold Bead Pheasant Tail (GBPT) Flashback dropper roughly 24 inches above. 

Quick Release Indicator about to dissappear

I made my first cast settled into my seat and within seconds my Quick Release Indicator disappeared. One of the lakes smaller residents, barely 12 inches long had inhaled the Ice Cream Cone. Not a bad start I thought. From that point on the action was steady. The fish were small but scrappy and lots of fun on my 4 weight. A few fish later I managed to get one over 14 inches that I was able to obtain a throat sample. They were feeding heavily on #16 and smaller olive chironomid larva.  There were also half dozen #14 dark olive and black chironomid pupas contained within the sample, some of them inflated and silver. Despite the reasonable numbers of Callibaetis duns drifting there were no nymphs or duns in my samples. Chironomids were on the menu.

Fish were active and willing to play!

After a few more fish I took off the indicator as I was changing my dropper fly to a small Chromie. I took a fish on my first cast using the ‘naked’ technique and continued to take fish on a steady basis. I switched back to the Quick Release Indicator so I had something to stare at while I ate lunch. I never moved until it was time to go! It was nice not having to chase fish all over the place!

Brian has success working the shoreline shallows

Brian did equally well and diligently worked the shallow reaches near the shoreline bull rush.  He locked horns with a few larger fish and managed to land on of the larger residents the lake is beginning to produce. His larger fish took his suspended leech pattern but as with my smaller fish it too was stuffed with chironomid larva and pupa. Brian’s leech must have looked like the perfect desert!

Brian is pleased with his results

I fished until just after 5pm, all in all a rewarding day. I made a promise to myself to try and get out more often over the coming months. I am fortunate to have a number of great little ‘pot hole’ lakes within an hour or so from home. Often we travel great distances to experience what is lying in our backyard.