I had another great day in the Ten Mile area of Lewiston Lake. I tied a bunch of peacock patterns last night, only to find that I should have tied 12’s and 14’s instead of 10’s. Oh well. There was not a lot of activity of fish jumping out of the water as seen the last two days.
The day started slow, with no fish landed in the first hour, and four small planters landed in the second hour (10 and 11 inches long). The wind kicked up at 2:30 and I snapped off more flies trying to push with the wind than I ever have. I also lost 10 flies to fish, either due to bad knots or fatigue to florocarbon line.
Nobody reads this blog, due to content in part and the fact nobody knows it exists, except my children (They are obligated to read it!!!). Therefore I can lay out exactly what I did today and nobody will take “my spot”. The picture above was taken from my boat while anchored from 2:30 to 5:00 PM today. I was about 100 yards below the plants in the left of the picture.
I was using a 5 weight rod, with size 6 intermediate line. I used 4x fluorocarbon for my tippet, about 2 feet long. Originally it was attached to a 4 foot leader, but I ended up tying it directly to the line in the afternoon. The fly was a size 12 Sheep Creek Special, both beaded and non-beaded.
The wind came up at 2:30 and was really blowing hard throughout the rest of the day. The fish moved to to the area in front of my boat, into an area of about 100 yards x 100 yards. From 3:30 to 5:00 PM almost every cast I made had a strike. When I didn’t get a strike in two successive casts I checked the fly usually to discover it missing or tangled. I netted 17 fish in the 90 minute period and it was like fishing in a stocked pond. I netted 25 fish for the day, mostly planters in the 10 – 12 inch range. I did land one 14 inch fish, and got eaten up to two larger fish when one got off when I tried to muscle it into the net, and the other got me into my reel immediately, shaking loose from the hook.
Now, what about fish stories? Exaggerations? I pride myself on my honestly. I’m not out to prove how great a fisherman I am….I just love the 3-dimensional game of chess it takes to hook trout. I have no reason to lie. I’ve learned from people on the Internet and hope to help. Also, I’d love to see more people fish the lake as it used to be a world class destination and is still a wonderful opportunity. And, I am honest about mostly being skunked between September and July.
Tonight I will be tying size 12 Sheep Creek Specials. Fortunately, I was the Sheep Creek Special tier for the Eureka Fly Shop during it’s last two years in operation. AND NO, the closure and Mike’s retirement were not due to my fly tying!!
Tight Lines All