I talked my non fishing brother into camping with me a couple of days out at Sun Lakes so we could fish Dry Falls.
We left Everett early Tuesday Morning and made it to the lake and on the water around 9:45 and started looking for shucks during a bright sunny day. I put out two rods to troll, one full sink and one intermediate. We trolled around to the Southeast bowl first, but didn't see a single bug so we continued around the corner to the Northwest and that's where we witnessed a few guys anchored up right next to shore, so figured this is the spot, or it was the spot. Once we made it into the bay (for those not familiar with their directions, the big bay closer to the observation center, the one where the trail comes down) both my brother and I ended up picking up hits and then a couple of fish on the trolling rods so we figured that the area should be good to stop and set up the indicator rods.
As it was I decided to leave the guys all lined up next to the shore alone and I anchored a bit further out. Once anchored I started to notice the first few bugs comming off so I set us up with size 12 or 14 mids right off the bottom in about 11' and within a minute we were into fish. I made the mistake of letting my brother cast so for the better part of the bite we would only have one rod in the water at a time while I was undoing knots, retying leader and finding new flies to replace the snapped off ones (although I didn't up finding two that were somehow snapped off in the boat). During these times I would let my brother hold the rod and it was fun to yell "UNDER!" or "OH!" or "THERE" and watch him do his best BASS Master Classic set on the fish. He lost a few, but he has always been a quick learner and it wasn't long before he was able to hook up regularly. The bite lasted a few hours with the peak around 11:00 and take unders once every minute or so. After that it tapered off and by 2:30 or so the bite was down to one every 10 minutes. Chromies by far ended up being the best bug once the bite was really on, but at the beginning they were taking other bugs as well. In the end my brother landed around 10 and I ended the day with around 20. Most of the fish were in the 14" range, but several more were smaller and our smallest of the day was 11". The larger fish which were about 30% of the catch were in the 16" to 17 1/2" range with our largest fish of the day being a 19 1/2" spawned out male.
On Wednesday morning the clouds were heavier and it was a bit colder so I didn't anticipate the same level of hatch as the day before. With this I thought I'd explore the long Northwest super shallow arm. Once rowing the boat in I found that the water clarity was still a bit murky, so it was hard to spot fish until you were right on them. After spooking 3 or 4 and no success on blind casts I bailed out to head back to the Northwest bay again. I did stop in the cut and to drop some deep water mids but after 10 minutes I gave that up and headed further East in the bay then the day before and found fish in that smaller bay right up against the North shore, but again the action didn't seem great so we pulled up and headed back to the area we fished on Tuesday. Why did I fight it? As soon as the indicators were out, it was game on for a couple of hours. This time I cast my brothers rod and that allowed me to hook up more often, I also kept my rod for myself when I was doing something for him 50% of the time so by the end of the day I ended up with over 30 fish easily and my brother probably landed close to 20 himself. Funny thing is the hatch really never manifested but the fish were still on the same bugs as Tuesday. Same general sizes, although are smallest was 10" and the largest this day was only 17 1/2"
On Thursday my spidey senses were tingling and I should have trusted my gut. The weather had shifted fronts, the wind shifted and the temp dropped. I was tempted to bail and hit another lake but after a lot of mental debate I decided to stay at Dry Falls. This time I headed straight for the Northwest bay and set up again about but not exactly in the same spot. Thursday was also the day that word must have got out because the lake was packed (around 12 fishers Tuesday, 15 on Wednesday and 30+ on Thursday). Lot's of guys came a wandering over to the bay but to be honest the catching was wayyyyyyyyy slower and for the most part that seemed to be the theme around the lake. My brother and I did end up picking up about 9 takes in an hour and a half but they were not on the mids like before (although one guy went way small and he did manage to pick up a couple of fish). After a bunch of experimenting I did manage to find one egg pattern that I had tied for steel that they seemed to like enough to twitch my brothers indicator enough to keep him interested but unlike the previous two days the takes were subtle at best. Other guys in the area were really fairing no better so around 12:30 we packed it up to head in. On the way in the wind died for a second and just outside the cut in the deep water we saw a bunch of bugs comming off and a few rising fish so we stopped there and once again after some experimenting with depth I was able to put us on another small bite for bit but the fish were really spread out and in different zones so it was hard to really dial it in. In my head I kept thinking these fish are never going to let me go to check out the other lake I want to fish. At 2:00 I said that's it and we packed up and left.
The other lake was blowing a bit hard when we showed up and after two days of draining my battery I knew my electric was just not going to cut it. I saw 5 boats on the water and two of them were comming in just as we pulled up. They said that the wind had been good all day but that it had just started about a half an hour before we showed up. ACKKKKKKKK. It was blowing right into the launch and after a few minutes the other anchored boats also pulled up and came in. If I had made it earlier, it would have been easy enough to make it to the far end to fish and then we could have rode the wind in. After a couple of bad words some kicked rocks and a broken hat I finally admitted to myself that I had to call it and head home and just be happy for the two great days of fishing that I had.
Ira..
We left Everett early Tuesday Morning and made it to the lake and on the water around 9:45 and started looking for shucks during a bright sunny day. I put out two rods to troll, one full sink and one intermediate. We trolled around to the Southeast bowl first, but didn't see a single bug so we continued around the corner to the Northwest and that's where we witnessed a few guys anchored up right next to shore, so figured this is the spot, or it was the spot. Once we made it into the bay (for those not familiar with their directions, the big bay closer to the observation center, the one where the trail comes down) both my brother and I ended up picking up hits and then a couple of fish on the trolling rods so we figured that the area should be good to stop and set up the indicator rods.
As it was I decided to leave the guys all lined up next to the shore alone and I anchored a bit further out. Once anchored I started to notice the first few bugs comming off so I set us up with size 12 or 14 mids right off the bottom in about 11' and within a minute we were into fish. I made the mistake of letting my brother cast so for the better part of the bite we would only have one rod in the water at a time while I was undoing knots, retying leader and finding new flies to replace the snapped off ones (although I didn't up finding two that were somehow snapped off in the boat). During these times I would let my brother hold the rod and it was fun to yell "UNDER!" or "OH!" or "THERE" and watch him do his best BASS Master Classic set on the fish. He lost a few, but he has always been a quick learner and it wasn't long before he was able to hook up regularly. The bite lasted a few hours with the peak around 11:00 and take unders once every minute or so. After that it tapered off and by 2:30 or so the bite was down to one every 10 minutes. Chromies by far ended up being the best bug once the bite was really on, but at the beginning they were taking other bugs as well. In the end my brother landed around 10 and I ended the day with around 20. Most of the fish were in the 14" range, but several more were smaller and our smallest of the day was 11". The larger fish which were about 30% of the catch were in the 16" to 17 1/2" range with our largest fish of the day being a 19 1/2" spawned out male.
On Wednesday morning the clouds were heavier and it was a bit colder so I didn't anticipate the same level of hatch as the day before. With this I thought I'd explore the long Northwest super shallow arm. Once rowing the boat in I found that the water clarity was still a bit murky, so it was hard to spot fish until you were right on them. After spooking 3 or 4 and no success on blind casts I bailed out to head back to the Northwest bay again. I did stop in the cut and to drop some deep water mids but after 10 minutes I gave that up and headed further East in the bay then the day before and found fish in that smaller bay right up against the North shore, but again the action didn't seem great so we pulled up and headed back to the area we fished on Tuesday. Why did I fight it? As soon as the indicators were out, it was game on for a couple of hours. This time I cast my brothers rod and that allowed me to hook up more often, I also kept my rod for myself when I was doing something for him 50% of the time so by the end of the day I ended up with over 30 fish easily and my brother probably landed close to 20 himself. Funny thing is the hatch really never manifested but the fish were still on the same bugs as Tuesday. Same general sizes, although are smallest was 10" and the largest this day was only 17 1/2"
On Thursday my spidey senses were tingling and I should have trusted my gut. The weather had shifted fronts, the wind shifted and the temp dropped. I was tempted to bail and hit another lake but after a lot of mental debate I decided to stay at Dry Falls. This time I headed straight for the Northwest bay and set up again about but not exactly in the same spot. Thursday was also the day that word must have got out because the lake was packed (around 12 fishers Tuesday, 15 on Wednesday and 30+ on Thursday). Lot's of guys came a wandering over to the bay but to be honest the catching was wayyyyyyyyy slower and for the most part that seemed to be the theme around the lake. My brother and I did end up picking up about 9 takes in an hour and a half but they were not on the mids like before (although one guy went way small and he did manage to pick up a couple of fish). After a bunch of experimenting I did manage to find one egg pattern that I had tied for steel that they seemed to like enough to twitch my brothers indicator enough to keep him interested but unlike the previous two days the takes were subtle at best. Other guys in the area were really fairing no better so around 12:30 we packed it up to head in. On the way in the wind died for a second and just outside the cut in the deep water we saw a bunch of bugs comming off and a few rising fish so we stopped there and once again after some experimenting with depth I was able to put us on another small bite for bit but the fish were really spread out and in different zones so it was hard to really dial it in. In my head I kept thinking these fish are never going to let me go to check out the other lake I want to fish. At 2:00 I said that's it and we packed up and left.
The other lake was blowing a bit hard when we showed up and after two days of draining my battery I knew my electric was just not going to cut it. I saw 5 boats on the water and two of them were comming in just as we pulled up. They said that the wind had been good all day but that it had just started about a half an hour before we showed up. ACKKKKKKKK. It was blowing right into the launch and after a few minutes the other anchored boats also pulled up and came in. If I had made it earlier, it would have been easy enough to make it to the far end to fish and then we could have rode the wind in. After a couple of bad words some kicked rocks and a broken hat I finally admitted to myself that I had to call it and head home and just be happy for the two great days of fishing that I had.
Ira..