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It's too bad that the Fling is already over, but a good time was had by all and here's the lowdown.
Last Thursday IveofIone, Jesse James, and Islander arrived at my place in Oroville. The mission was to fish local lakes, eat lots of good food, drink good beers (well, some of us don't drink) and have a general good time.
Ive and Jesse had checked out Sidley Lake the night before and said it was dead, not a real big surprise. The following days we would fish Wannacutt, Blue to north of it, Forde, Spectacle, Whitestone, Washburn, and Lost.
Our fist visit to Wannacut was greeted with the occasional winds that hammer the lake. Foam stips, white caps, and tired legs were the results. As usual, there were plenty of cookie cutter 10-12 inch rainbows that take easily to a fly and then rocket out of the water and splash about. One other visit by the others, (I was repairing my field mower and mowing the field too) it was calmer but the fish hadn't grown much.:hmmm:
Blue to the north of Wannacutt was visited twice by Ive and Islander, though the report was that only Ive was catching the elusive Lahontans in that lake. The biggest I heard was 23 inches. Wind was an issue there too, like that is a big surprise.
Spectacle and Whitestone were to be new challenges this year. Challenge is putting it mildly, both lakes are littered with bluegill and perch that barely pass for bait. We did see some nice sized crappie while we were putting in that were hanging around the dock, but we headed out for what we thought would be better waters. After little success on Whitestone we tried Spectacle with about the same result. In the end we took some bluegill home and Ive filleted and fried them up. Not exactly the crappie he envisioned...:hmmm:
Afterwards I headed up a rocky, scary, steep, meandering dirt road to find Washburn. Reports from some locals said there were good sized trout in it. I walked the 200 or so yards down to the lake from the road to check it out. Fish were hitting emergers with regularity. So I hot footed it back to the truck and packed the Watermaster into the lake. I had no emerger patterns but was able to take a nice 16 or so inch Brookie with a Carey pattern. That would be the only fish to hand and hunger sent me back down the hill towards home and dinner.
Lost Lake was my saving grace to the trip. We spent about six or so hours on the water but picked up lots of Brookies from 9 to 17 or so inches. Ive as usual was the master of catching them and schooled Steve and I in the ways of picking them up.
Most of the lakes are not in all that great of shape so far, Spring has been wet and cold up there and the waters show the results.
Food was a great treat and I'll post more in a while, right now I've got some chores and a pizza to pick up...:thumb:
Last Thursday IveofIone, Jesse James, and Islander arrived at my place in Oroville. The mission was to fish local lakes, eat lots of good food, drink good beers (well, some of us don't drink) and have a general good time.
Ive and Jesse had checked out Sidley Lake the night before and said it was dead, not a real big surprise. The following days we would fish Wannacutt, Blue to north of it, Forde, Spectacle, Whitestone, Washburn, and Lost.
Our fist visit to Wannacut was greeted with the occasional winds that hammer the lake. Foam stips, white caps, and tired legs were the results. As usual, there were plenty of cookie cutter 10-12 inch rainbows that take easily to a fly and then rocket out of the water and splash about. One other visit by the others, (I was repairing my field mower and mowing the field too) it was calmer but the fish hadn't grown much.:hmmm:
Blue to the north of Wannacutt was visited twice by Ive and Islander, though the report was that only Ive was catching the elusive Lahontans in that lake. The biggest I heard was 23 inches. Wind was an issue there too, like that is a big surprise.
Spectacle and Whitestone were to be new challenges this year. Challenge is putting it mildly, both lakes are littered with bluegill and perch that barely pass for bait. We did see some nice sized crappie while we were putting in that were hanging around the dock, but we headed out for what we thought would be better waters. After little success on Whitestone we tried Spectacle with about the same result. In the end we took some bluegill home and Ive filleted and fried them up. Not exactly the crappie he envisioned...:hmmm:
Afterwards I headed up a rocky, scary, steep, meandering dirt road to find Washburn. Reports from some locals said there were good sized trout in it. I walked the 200 or so yards down to the lake from the road to check it out. Fish were hitting emergers with regularity. So I hot footed it back to the truck and packed the Watermaster into the lake. I had no emerger patterns but was able to take a nice 16 or so inch Brookie with a Carey pattern. That would be the only fish to hand and hunger sent me back down the hill towards home and dinner.
Lost Lake was my saving grace to the trip. We spent about six or so hours on the water but picked up lots of Brookies from 9 to 17 or so inches. Ive as usual was the master of catching them and schooled Steve and I in the ways of picking them up.
Most of the lakes are not in all that great of shape so far, Spring has been wet and cold up there and the waters show the results.
Food was a great treat and I'll post more in a while, right now I've got some chores and a pizza to pick up...:thumb:
