I had driven to the lake on Wednesday in advance of some friends who were heading down to join me a couple of days later for some fishing, biking, eating, and drinking on our annual fall pilgrimage to this desert lake.
Although it's perhaps not the optimal approach, as dedicated fly fishers our group continues to use standard trout tackle down here and perhaps surprisingly, we've been quite successful over time. Next year we'll probably opt for quick sinking lines, rather than the standard floaters we've been using. This year we at least we "smarted up" enough to use heavier split shot type sinkers when trolling and that change probably led to a higher level of success.
Being first on the scene I was more or less the "scouting party", so it was my duty to explore the watery areas around our campsite at Stanton Creek and try to put together a package of tactics that might bring some fish to the hook. The first day I paddled my wash deck kayak back to places that had been productive for shore casting in the spring. No such luck this fall. Every spot we'd enjoyed in May was under water. So I ended up trolling almost the whole day as beach casting was not worthwhile (except for a break to ease the ache in my bottom caused by too much time in the plastic seat).
That first day I averaged a fish hitting my fly every 15-20 minutes of paddling. It
doesn't sound like great action and probably isn't, but compared to what I saw the
casters from power boats doing, it really wasn't a bad strike rate. The fish
were not large, consisting of 10% largemouths with the balance being
smallmouths. Sizes ranged from 6-13 inches. This
was actually the first time I've caught bigmouths trolling so that was a
pleasant surprise.
Heading back to camp the first night I was treated to the awesome sight of a school of large stripers viciously attacking a ball of threadfin shads in the middle of the Stanton Creek slough. It was incredibly furious action. Fish exploded in the air and crashed back to the surface sounding like grenades going off. People on the shore watching the happening were dumbfounded by the noise and carnage. Gulls flocked to the water and picked up the scraps. I was almost fortunate enough to get into one of those feeding frenzies the following day, but could not paddle fast enough, and the action had dispersed by the time I'd arrived at the spot.
Let's examine the fishing tactics that we used down here this year:
FLIES: Historically when we find a narrow neck of water loaded with panfish, we use a standard small nymph pattern and hand twist retrieve it slowly through the schools of fish. It's a very effective technique. This fall there was little shore casting water available, so we primarily trolled.
As we did when trolling in the spring, we again used steel eyed wooley buggers basically in olive or black or with a brown body & black hackle. The marabou tail length is critical and needs to be not excessively long or the fish will short strike.
Because of the presence of large numbers of shad, I created a slightly different type of marabou fly that proved to be quite effective. It's tied on a normal or 2X long #10-#14 hook. A simple gray floss body is wrapped (over lead) and the gray marabou feather is tied in directly behind a steel or chrome bead head. Black thread is used to indicate some segmentation between the marabou and the head. The fly has extraordinary action when pulled through the water. No twitching is really needed. The fly was effective every day.
My friend Sue had tied an equally effective brown bodied, black hackled
wooley bugger that caught the only
striper of the
trip - a wonderful three pounder - as we trolled in deeper water near our
camp.
By the way, tippet size is basically inconsequential. These fish are not leader shy. The best product seemed to be a 3X Orvis Mirage. Simple knots like the surgeon & improved clinch held up better than with the 6.4# test Orvis Super Strong material.
I continue to use a double fly rig and believe it to be more effective than one fly trolled alone. The logic is that the fish see the second fly chasing the first one and it reacts to one or the other, rather than just making a decision as to whether a single fly is worth bothering with. Anyway that's my logic, and until I'm convinced otherwise, it's a tactic I'll continue to use.
TROLLING SUGGESTIONS: We fish from the kayak without a motor so it's easy to get close to shore. Best water seemed to be 15-25 feet near structure of any kind - canyon walls, dropoffs, etc. Because we had floating lines, we could troll over dead shrubs and trees that were barely covered by the rising lake waters, so many of those areas were productive too. Trolling speed was more effective at a slow pace. When the winds came up, we could paddle further out in the lake and then simply drift towards shore, twitching the flies behind us. The heavier clip on sinkers helped get the flies deeper. Our average trolling depth was probably 3-8 feet.
Mid-day is the least effective time to fish. The weather was hot so fish were deeper and less accessible. Early mornings and from 5:00 P.M. until after dark were much better.
TRIP HIGHLIGHTS: Because I spent twice the number of hours on the water as the others in our party, I had a couple more sessions that were particularly wonderful. In one thirty-five minute stretch the second evening, I landed seven nice smallmouths - a catch rate that I've never before experienced. Then the following day I was blessed by hooking and landing a double of terrific largemouths - one on the front gray marabou, and a second on the trailing brown marabou fly. And neither broke off before being hand released.
The previously noted striper catch by Sue was the absolute high point of the expedition. That was a great fighting fish and a real surprise to us all. I've yet to catch a striper and will remain forever jealous until that occurs.
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