Jgoding
11-29-2007, 10:29 AM
My brother and I decided to head up to a WU property nested in the Lassen National Park area. It's about 50 miles east or Redding. The area consists of ponds and a section of lost creek which flows through the area. The ponds are fly fishing only (CnR) and were stocked with triploids many years ago but do have some wild fish in them. The fish are large and educated it is a popular fishing property.
We arrived Thursday Night and it was cold.... I would say in the 20's as any moisture promptly froze (except for the pepsi oddly enough....) We hunted waterfowl first light and managed a single duck since it was pretty slow and we split up instead of sticking together on the first jumpshot.... Anyways, hit up one of the ponds first light Saturday morning which was even colder than Friday. My line and guides froze solid immediately and even the little droplets on my leader froze between casts... Fish were rising to midge adults and taking emergers sporadically. I through a dry and an emerger for about 20 mins before losing my dry on a bad back cast. At this point I decided to go unconventional and swapped out my floater for my type 6 shooter and a Whitlock's waker shad....
My judgement paid off and I was immediately rewarded with a nice fat 14" to hand. I switched locations to a deeper corner of the pond and immediately had some large fish follow the fly and charge it multiple times but not taking. I did manage about another fish about 18" to hand but the highlight was watching a fish about 25" charge the fly 3 times but refusing to open his mouth....
In the end, I don't know how you die hard steelhead fishermen deal with iced guides... stripping the line in sounded like grinding metal and having your line stop shooting because it's frozen in place isn't much fun either....
Also wondering if anyone else tries streamers in the winter?? I also loved the action of the fly as it's pulled under water by the shooting head by tries to float up between strips....
Overall the fishing was slow but Sunday was warmer. We managed 4 trout for the cooler at a different location, 10 quail, 1 duck, and 1 canada goose for the plate..... Anyone needing natural biots let me know... Young bird in perfect condition.
Jeff
We arrived Thursday Night and it was cold.... I would say in the 20's as any moisture promptly froze (except for the pepsi oddly enough....) We hunted waterfowl first light and managed a single duck since it was pretty slow and we split up instead of sticking together on the first jumpshot.... Anyways, hit up one of the ponds first light Saturday morning which was even colder than Friday. My line and guides froze solid immediately and even the little droplets on my leader froze between casts... Fish were rising to midge adults and taking emergers sporadically. I through a dry and an emerger for about 20 mins before losing my dry on a bad back cast. At this point I decided to go unconventional and swapped out my floater for my type 6 shooter and a Whitlock's waker shad....
My judgement paid off and I was immediately rewarded with a nice fat 14" to hand. I switched locations to a deeper corner of the pond and immediately had some large fish follow the fly and charge it multiple times but not taking. I did manage about another fish about 18" to hand but the highlight was watching a fish about 25" charge the fly 3 times but refusing to open his mouth....
In the end, I don't know how you die hard steelhead fishermen deal with iced guides... stripping the line in sounded like grinding metal and having your line stop shooting because it's frozen in place isn't much fun either....
Also wondering if anyone else tries streamers in the winter?? I also loved the action of the fly as it's pulled under water by the shooting head by tries to float up between strips....
Overall the fishing was slow but Sunday was warmer. We managed 4 trout for the cooler at a different location, 10 quail, 1 duck, and 1 canada goose for the plate..... Anyone needing natural biots let me know... Young bird in perfect condition.
Jeff