Winter

Welp I haven't posted here in a while. I have been winter stillwater fishing, but only about 3 times a month. I fished Lone all winter and it seemed to be slower than winters past. The average outing usually resulted in 4 fish while there were better and worse days.

Pass Lake 11/02/2007

I put in at Pass at about 9:30. I waited till after daylight because it was cold as hell. When I arrived at the lake it was 38 degrees. My first cast slipped out of my hand and fell all of about 15 feet. My bad cast was rewarded with a fish jumping out of the water after my fly. I had it on shortly then lost it. As I headed down the roadside into the cove I had several strikes and a couple of fish on. I thought it would be a good day. I worked the water after the cove it and my day soon slowed. I picked up about a fish an hour and the strikes were less frequent.

The odd thing about the 19 and 17 inch fish that I released is that they were both injured. The 19 looked like a bird or a net had left scars on its body. The 17 inch fish had part of its gill missing and had some type of slash also.

Scooter and I had plans on returning on Sunday however we got over-excited and fished the lake on Saturday afternoon. I should know by now that Pass is always slow in the afternoons. We got blanked after a couple of hours of fishing and saw very little surface activity. He fished the transitional depths while I worked the shallows. The only fish we saw caught were on olive chronies.

Pass Lake 10/28/2007

It was an average Pass day not super-hot and not super-cold. I stripped a minnow pattern about 90% of the time. I am guessing there were probably 9 fish to the net. Most of the fish came from the trail entrance at the middle of the lake by the road. The minnow patter had taken some violent hits and I missed a couple of big fish. The highlights were a 21bow, 20 bow and a 16 brown. I tried to get a picture of the brown but it would not sit still. It fought the hardest of all of the fish and was still fighting when I landed it. The coolest thing was watching the 20 incher rip through the grass in the shallows.The grass was moving and making noise as he pounded on my fly.

Rod: 4wt

Line: Full Sink

Pattern: Clown Leech

Weather: Overcast 55degrees

Time: Mid day

Holding Water And Big Fish

I watched Kelly Gaullop's streamer fishing video and it got me thinking about predatory fish in still water. I have always had success in the mornings and evenings when fish are generally feeding. I tend to key on fish in the shallows more in the evening time than I do in the morning. If I remember right though, most of my big fish (25 and over) have been hooked during non-feeding times. These fish were not feeding. According to the theory, they were attacking something that was in their area and they were not feeding off of it.
So what is "holding water" in a lake? Where do big fish go when they are not feeding. I believe they hold in slightly deeper water than feeding water. I also think that this water is relatively close to feeding water (shallows). I think that they mostly sit near structure (drop-offs) so that they can be safe and rest in an optimum water temperature. This allows them to move in and out of feeding water without using much energy because the feeding water is close by.

Link:http://flyfisherman.com/ftb/kgtrigger/

Another Lake 10/14/2006

Arrived at Vogler near 11:00. The water was calm and the sun was out. The fall colors were spectacular!. I think that Vogler is shaped like a snow man. Welp having said that, the first fish I landed came after over an hour and it was in the belly of the snowman. It was a 17 inch bow. It was on a peacock bugger. I changed up several times but could get much going. I did get hits on a "Dave Special" but that was about all I could muster. I lost a couple of fish and that pretty much sums up my day. It was slow. I left as the sun started to sink but I didn't feel like waiting around for the evening bite. It is a long drive on a Sunday night before work the next morning. I wanted to get home. Vogler seems to be most effective early in the morning.

Pass Lake 10/13/07

Arrived at Pass at 5:45 am. There was a little over an hour left before daylight. I was anxious to fish the new 4 wt. Scooter was there and he was ready to go. As I hit the water, my line was tangled on my reel. I didn't get the chance to fish for another hour or so. By the time I had fixed my line it was 7:00 or so.
Started off in the cove with a white bugger and picked up a 6" minnow. After that I headed across the lake and to the point. I lost a decent fish on the way over. Things got slow as I headed down to the rock. I changed up to a peacock bugger. I picked up a few hits at the rock and scooter was having a slow time. I knew that there would be fish down at the far end of the lake so we headed down there.
At the reeds, I picked up a couple of hits instantly. As I trolled towards the road I picked up a 14 incher. I continued and landed a 16 incher. Now Scott changed to a minnow pattern and started catching fish. I change and pick up another couple of fish too but it begin to slow down for me. He needed to head back because he was hungry and had to leave. I think we left an area that we could have picked up a couple of more fish.

When we got back to our parking spot, I had a few brews. Scooter left and went home I continued fishing and headed back over to the point and back to the end of the lake. I went back to my peacock bugger. I picked up a decent fish but don't remember the size of it as I made my way back down the lake. It must have been 1:30 or so. As I continued, I picked up a few bumps but no fish as I made my way down the lake. As I hit the end of the lake I picked up a couple more fish but nothing special. Changed up to the minnow Scooter had given me and it wouldn't even buy a bite. I change to a couple of flys before heading to the small end of the lake again.
Before arriving at "the point" I picked up a decent fish. It had started to get dark and I saw a big fish cruising. I planted my fly right where he rolled and bam. "Fish on". It measured 21" (see pic). It made my day to have a worthy opponent on my 4wt.

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