What can Brown do for You?

[SHigSpeed]

It can certainly make my day! But first things first...

Scott V and I hit this NorCal lake relatively early, but not as early as we would have if there wasn't any ice on the roads. Quite spooky - glad we made it in one piece.

It was a pretty sunrise though!

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3776/11167328314_400746e2cf_b_d.jpg

...but cold! For anyone who has been here, this'll be the dead giveaway photo.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5482/11167209845_4669efc0d6_b_d.jpg

Anyway, we hit the water and see quite a few fish jumping - completely out of the water sometimes. But casting to them didn't result in many fish. All planter, albeit feisty, rainbows. We were there for some big salmo trutta though.

Here's Scott during one of the multiple fly changes we tried to get the job done.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2877/11167259594_7062138773_b_d.jpg

Anyway, after a spending most of the day getting a planter 'bow here and there, I finally got some local assistance that pointed me in the right direction.

Payoff!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7418/11167329476_d2de66bb56_b_d.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3764/11167393833_7363f26abe_b_d.jpg

Home he goes:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twF3W6asf7I&feature=c4-overview&list=UUxpSc4ki6a7JitUUzkGC2-A

and the only other brown today - a "small" one:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7375/11167260814_68ccdff00b_b_d.jpg

Ironically the second fish took me WAY longer to land than the first. Both were worthy battles in their own rights though. The big dog hardly fit in my net and it was quite stressful getting him under control.

I must say that this makes up for the drubbing at the hands of Davis earlier this week, though it almost went down as another rubber trout trip.

Oh, we also picked up a gear bag abandoned on shore belonging to Daniel Aiger - anyone know him? I have his address but a phone number would be cool. I'll probably try to drive by after work this week as he's not too far up the road from me.

_SHig

[Mark Kranhold]

Nice brownies! Great job!!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The trout are near the surface this time of year.

[gene goss]

WOW.....thats a nice brown SHig, so what direction did you go?

[Rockman]

Nice report and photos guys! I have fished Lake McCloud the last two days and it has been really good. Was going to fish Lake Siskiyou, but the lake is so low, we could not launch. As soon as we start getting rain the ramp should be usable. The ramp at McCloud is getting a bit sketchy too. 25 + or - fish days, mostly bows with an occasional brown. My "big" brown was the size of your "small" brown. Still a nice fish and a hard fight. Fishing an int. line with dark colored buggers and a size 14 sheeps creek did the trick, also a zug bug works well. Let the intermediate line sink for awhile and do a slow strip and pause, lots of multiple grabs on a single retrieve, keep thee fly in the water up to the boat, had many grabs next to the boat when the fly was rising to be recast due to the off color of the water. Would love to fish some low elevation lakes near home, "Antelope" this winter. If anyone is willing as I to share some info, or a ride up the hill, shoot me a p.m. I am off on Sun. & Mondays.

Also, we are not fishing or targeting browns on redds in the river, we are fishing open lake "Stillwater". Out of 50-60 fish in two days,6-7 browns, the rest were all bows. I do not believe all browns are on the bottom spawning, some of the browns we caught 4-6 feet down in 30+ feet of water.

[Scott V]

The trout are near the surface this time of year.

Not the browns, they were on the very bottom spawning.