I got on the lake today at noon and the water was wonderfully ripply. The ripples give soaking midges a wonderful action. And the ripples don’t affect trolling or stripping flies. I met Don out on the lake and asked him how he had been doing, and I never fully heard due to the wind…

Hard to believe it has been 12 days since my last post. Nothing horrible going on. I’m just puttering. Events over the last 12 days include: Fished over a week ago with two really good fishermen from the Shasta Flyfishing Club. Nothing was happening all day. I landed two fish casting a blackberry mohair leech…

I got out on the lake to putter a little while before the early dark. In 30 minutes I had 3 hookups and landed two 13 inchers using a blackberry leech. Two locals from the park landed 5 and lost many more using their new strategy: when fish rise move the boat quickly to the…

I have been on the water the last few days running my experiment comparing fly/lures (FLURS) to trolling worms. The fish have gone off the bite. They are schooling and moving and no longer hang out in areas. The are constantly on the move the pods of fish are hard to find. I realized that…

I have run 14 – 45 minute transects in the last four days. The times, transects, and choice of lure / worm have all been randomized. Worms have been outdistancing lures in strikes and landed fish. However, worms have been “Cheating”. Aside from their deliciousness to trout, worms have been trolling lower in the water…

I ran three transects today. The loop route has fish in the northern end on the far side of the lake. Worms got the nod for the loop transect and they pulled ahead with 17 strikes, 1 hookup and lost, and 3 fish landed. Once fish find the worms they keep hitting them over and…

I went out tonight from 6:00 to 6:45 and trolled a silver FLUR in the north end of the Loop course. I hooked 3 fish and landed 2, in 45 minutes. Now, I’m not much of a trolling fisherman, but a hookup every 15 minutes looks good for the FLUR. However, I realized a bias…

Yesterday I was able to run the first transect of my experiment. Forty-five minutes without a strike. There were fish working, but not strikes along the southern route. I later caught one fish by casting a sheep creek special near working fish. Other than that one fish, my day was a ton of cold adventure….

Busy day on the water today. I landed 3 fish in two hours, trolling along the Loop Route above. My original plan was to just head north and south from the marina, but I know that fish “always” hang out above and below the island across from the marina. I also know that there are…

I got on the lake for two hours today for my first attempt at trolling two rods. Because of difficulties with wind I am considering running the experiment (comparing my FLUR fly/lures to trolled Nightcrawlers) with only one rod at a time. I landed my first fish after stopping the trolling motor. The wind whipped…