Old popular fly fishing lakes of Nor Cal

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Back in the 1960s and '70s in Nor Cal we fished a lot of good small trout lakes that we perfect for fly fishing.

We mostly fished in small prams or round float tubes.

Rods were fiberglass like Fenwick, Winston, Scott, Scientific Angler, Etc. Poplar sizes were 8 to 8'6" in sizes 5, 6 and 7. these rods were slower and had softer tips than many of the new graphite rods.

The Cortland 444 Peach was a real popular line back then.

The most popular knot-less tapered leader was the Berkeley Specialist and the hot new tippet material from France was the Cortland Nylorfi.

Back then most fished on top in lakes with dries on Callibaetis may fly hatches with the Blue Dun, Red Quill or Adams standard dry flies.

This was the era were the para-dun/parachute, spinner and cripple patterns were developed for smooth water.

Under the water with a weight forward type 2 full sink with the newly made popular marabou leeches.

These lakes were McCumber, Manzanita, Grace, Nora and Baum east of Redding, CA.

Others up out of Truckee, CA were Martis Creek Reservoir, Milton, Frenchmans and Davis.


Some of these still fish well today but others have changed a lot and are no longer what they use to be.

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I still think that Lake McCumber, east of Redding is a favorite of mine for using a small pram, V-boat or pontoon boat. It usually fished well in may, June and July.

It is small and weedy so it is a fish factory. It does vary a lot year to year depending on the water level though. This year it should be good.

http://www.kiene.com/reports/lakes/mccumber.shtm

**I would love to see Scott V and other make a trip up there in June.

[FRSam]

My experience with McCumber is exactly as you describe it Bill. It's just down the hill from Manzanita and a pram does well there to plane over all the weed beds which are numerous. The first time I fished it some years ago there was a massive Callibaetis hatch coming off. There were only two others fishing it that day from a 10 or 12 foot aluminum boat soaking bait.

A couple of real nice guys - I can still remember them saying the fishing wasn't very good as the fish were all up on top taking what he referred to as these dang up-rights. To this day whenever I see Callibaetis on the water I always think of them as being described as those dang up-rights.

There are still a lot of these smaller lakes which do very well and are often overlooked. But certainly the ones you've mentioned were the most popular.

And your reference to the Cortland 444 Peach line sure brought back some memories - I think I still have some around here somewhere. Was my very favorite line.

Pete

[Rick J]

Bill - I used to fish McCumber alot - also fished Manzanita - we would fish it in the day then blast over to Hat to fish down around Carbon for the evening hatch and spinner fall - really great times. On Manzanita it was mostly midges and callibaetis - greasing your leader and watching it kick with a size 22 midge was the ultimate game!! Some nights we would stay at Manzanita to try and fish the caddis that would just race across the water!!

McCumber has really weeded up badly - was up there last year for a couple of hours and it was in bad shape - maybe better down towards the dam - I remember one time many years ago when I camped there overnight in the back of my truck and could not get to sleep because of all the frogs and one damn duck quacking all night!!!