After skunkings at Lone and Beaver, twice each, thinking about different venue, anyone been to Rattlesnake lately and, if so, anything promising to report?
Yeah, it's been okay. I was there last Thursday and landed four and a few LDRs. Another forum member was there fishing chironomids and did quite well. I would be going tomorrow if the weather wasn't so bad. 18-22mph winds forecast.
Chironomids vertical nymphing in 50 ft of water was the ticket on the last week of February. The fish were thin but hungry. 9-14 inches.
Well half. The other half start with "mother..." Yeah so I'm starting to lose track, Roper. One minute it's cowboy, the next it's preacher, I turn around again and now you're a marksman. Identity crisis?
Hell, everyone got all freaked out when I got all cleaned up for my executive photo, so I put an old furry avatar back in...last winter's bird hunt in the snow...
Is there any decent fishing from the banks, with a fly rod? My brothers want to learn, and I was told that Rattlesnake was a decent fishing spot. New to the area, and never really fished a lake for trout. It would be something new for me as well.
Yes you can wade out around the stumps and catch fish from the bank. I think they just planted it so the cove next to the launch should be producing
Patrick, can you fish dry flies, attraction pattern dries, or do you need to nymph or streamer fish. These guys are new, and teaching them to properly nymph fish will be a test. Without current, do you swing the dries?
My favorite thing to do is slowly work my way to the south end of the lake. After I'm tired of catching lots of fish trolling a Carey, I anchor up and switch to a dry pattern--a small black EHC or some kind of flying ant or terrestrial pattern works great here--just to see what happens. A 4wt rod is very useful in this situation and definitely increases the entertainment value of the lake. Light wind days are the key, as trout tend to look up for terrestrials blown off the bluff. You see, that's the thing. It's my theory that you have to place yourself where the wind will put the most terrestrials, if you are fishing drys. That will mean that either you're using some kind of watercraft, casting upwind, or working off one of those trails under the bluffs (there's a huge rock outcropping/island along that bank which would work good to give you some room for a back cast--if I recall the details correctly or if the water level was the real difference). Given that I've only fished with watercraft, I limit myself to theory and hypotheses.
