Lenore Report

[Sageman]

OK, sounds like we need a Lenore report to answer a couple of inquiries on a couple of different threads now. I fished it today from maybe 9-3 or something like that. Switched off between chironimids (and blood worms) and trolling wooly buggers.

Lenore is not a bad option right now. The fish are spread out and cruising around feeding. Lots of space for people and the fish are pretty aggressive. Don't expect to find big concentrations of them, but when I had a couple quick, successive hits I would drop anchor and fish the chironimids. Had one hot streak where I got about 8 of them in a 90 minute or so period, but stopped a few places that were completely unproductive. The wooly buggers were pretty consistent throughout the day and I probably got close to 10 on a burgundy wooly bugger. Had limited success with a black leech and nary a bump on a olive one. If you troll slowly (kick troll for us do-it-yourselfers) you will get a lot of light hits and hook up maybe 1:5 or so. When I got the legs pumping and added a slow, steady strip, they hit it a lot more aggressively. The name of the game was to cover water and find the active fish. If you can find a concentration, stop and hit 'em with chironimids, scuds, damsel nymphs, or blood worms, but only give them 10 minutes and then move on. If they are going to respond, it shouldn't take much longer than that. There were a lot of mayflies coming off throughout the day, but only scatterred rises. Suspect it would be tough to target them on the mayflies.

This past week I've fished Leech, Lenice, the Yakima, Rocky Ford, and hiked into a mountain lake. Of these, Leech fished the best and Lenore second best. The drawback for Leech is you need to carry your tube/boat in now that the gate is locked, and the fish are a lot smaller.

My recommendation: go to Lenore. The Yak is getting pounded still and you'll be sharing the river with a lot of people. Lenore is huge and the fish are spread out. I was down towards the south end, but I really don't think it matters where you fish it. Lenice will get hit hard this weekend and based on my one day on the lake and discussions with other fishermen, it is a little hit or miss right now, with a miss being a handful of fish for a hard day of fishing.

Marty

[Jim Harper]

Thanks for a good comprehensive report. Jim Harper

[shgrier]

iagree Sageman. I took off Friday nite for Lenore and slept in the car until sunrise. Amazing the number of folks of Russian descent (I assume by their dialect) coming down at 0'dark-thirty to start fishing. They pound the water with spinners until they get their one fish, and then the families pile back into their cars and leave. They usually come back that evening as well, but that's content for a completely different thread.

I fished hard on Saturday, and switched back and forth between buggers/leeches (olive, black, chili-pepper, brown) and nymphs under the bobber. You're right about the need for searching them out. They were cruising actively and being very opportunistic.

Funny note: I had to change over to yellow bobbers, 'cause the fish would come up and try to eat the red one. :rofl: I foulhooked a couple that way, as they thrashed around and caught themselves on the nymphs below. I ended up seeing my backing on one that was hooked that way - took awhile to put the brakes to him.

Wind was off and on Saturday, but very manageable. Saturday night, I kept worrying my car (and me in it) was going to be blown over - it was RAGING :eek:. Sunday morning was calm, though. But I think the wind and lack of cloud cover that night cooled the water down enough to impact the bite. It was 62 Saturday, but dropped to 56 (surface temp) Sunday morning. I only got 2-3 hits Sunday, but picked up 12-13 on Saturday. Nothing under 4lbs, and I had one pig at the boat that was at least 8lbs - he busted the fly off before I could get it out of his mouth. This lake is in the best shape it has been since the fishkill of '96.

Sunday afternoon I headed over to the spectacle that is Rocky Ford :rolleyes:. Wind was calm (for the most part), and the crowds were very reasonable - maybe 12-15 folks on the whole creek.

7-8 fish to hand, and one monster that put my 7wt and 4x tippet to the limit. Halfway through the fight, he rubbed it against a rock and took a hard run that busted the tippet.

I found an epoxy scud pattern in beige/gray that was the magic fly in between hatches. BWOs and PED's were coming off pretty consistently. Clouds of little gray caddis were filling the air around me - it was a good weekend.

Final note, I had a little yearling rattler (1-1/2 rattles on his tail) cross the path down at RF. Too cold for him to do much more than slither into a hole, but it was still interesting to see. Striking colors (no pun intended).

Bottom line is Lenore and RF are still good choices for the next week or so, if you can afford the gas, or are in the area anyway...

Sean
Sultan

[Chromer]

10/3/05 - The south end of Lenore was excellent. 13 fish to pontoon by 10:30am. Nobody except me fishing - everyone must be at work.