Yesterday, at the lake I fished, all ya needed was a clear intermediate line and the right fly. That could have been any fly, for all I knew, because I never had to change up. I bit off my searun cutthroat streamer, and tied on a lake bugger that a little voice inside my head told me might work. It was an impromptu concoction devised after a couple of beers. Size 8. Gold beadhead, etc (you know, the mandatory black marabou tail, some sparkle chenille and black saddle hackle). I am now calling that thing the "Narwhalsawzall Stocker Clocker," and probably due to no fault of its design. Dang!
I just cast out and stripped out some more line until I had about 40' behind my U-12, then took a couple of light strokes of my paddle and with my line tight, just did a very slow wind troll in the light breeze, sometimes setting my rod down and taking an occasional stroke before picking up my rod again and getting ready for the grab. Had several grabs while I was reaching for the paddle or taking a stoke.
I fished mainly in 10' to 15' depths, but picked up a couple of fatties working the submerged logs against the far shoreline in about 7' or 8', where I could see the logs on the bottom. There were a few rise rings, and what looked like a small midge hatch going off at 5pm when I was paddling back to the ramp. I picked up fish trolling over where I saw the rise rings, but those hookups may have been coincidental.
Although I did some casting and retrieving, and that worked as well as the trolling, my arm protested, so I mainly trolled. Was using the used 9' Fenwick boron rod I picked up last Fall. The writing on the blank had worn off, so there was no indication of the weight class on the rod. Guy who sold it to me said he thought it might be a 7 wt. After yesterday, I think its a 5 wt, since it felt overlined with my 6 wt Cortland Clear Camo. Rod's action is full flex, almost noodly, but with great damping. Seems like an excellent streamer trolling rod.
Dang! Must have been the building high pressure and pleasant conditions, combined with mass quantities of recently stocked hungry trout that had spread out all over the lake. Whatever, but I enjoyed nonstop action from 2pm til just after 5pm when i had to reel in because the trout would not let me troll back to the ramp! I released a good two dozen before I lost count, and had at least half as many more toss the hook near my boat. I probably connected with 40 trout during the course of 3 hours. Oh yes! "Non-stop action" because these feisty demons would not come willingly nor easily to the net!
Saw only one other angler out on the lake, and he may have been having similar success. When he rowed within shouting distance, I mentioned that it seemed like there were a lot of hungry trout around. He replied that he just released about a dozen over where he had just been fishing.
Those trout were uneducated and hungry. I had tied my fly on some 8.5# 3x with a non-slip mono loop, and that didn't even slow 'em down. I did my best to school as many as possible. With the large number brought to my net, there were a couple that were bleeding badly, so I bonked 'em. One was one of the smaller one I caught, only a 13"er. The other two keepers werre about 15".
There were some that I released and some that got off that were in the 15" to 18" class that just went ape-shit when hooked. Jumpers! And going for big air!
The nice weather window closed, but the fish are still there for now. Surface water temp was still at 51 F.
All ya need for that lake is a clear intermediate line! And a Narwhalsawzall Stocker Clocker!