Manzanita Lake/Lassen advice?

[windknot]

Hi Mike,

Hat Lake (the headwaters to Hat Creek) is within the Lassen NP boundary, located right near the road, and has lots of willing little brookies (or at least had them when I was last there in 2006). It's a pretty swampy, shallow lake, but I caught a fish per cast using beadhead nymphs before the mosquitoes drove me away.

Hope this helps,
Matt

[SFMike]

Wow, thanks to everyone for the great advice! I can't wait to get out there and see what we can coax up. My brother is bringing a kayak, so that should work well on Manzanita and maybe we'll get lucky and tie into one of those 5lb browns!

But honestly, I think I'll be pretty happy if we can catch some little brookies and rainbows so the kids can see them. Crater, Butte and Hat Lakes and Kings Creek all sound like they'll be great kid-friendly excursions.

Mike

[huntindog]

...dont forget some black ants...i fished it two weeks ago for an hour in the morning and did pretty well using a very simple black ant pattern

[SFMike]

First of all, thanks to everyone that posted advice. I really appreciate it! Second of all, to anyone as naive as I am thinking that you'll actually get to fish on a trip with a 2.5 yr old, just don't get your hopes too high! We had a lot of fun throwing dirt and rocks in the lake, but it's pretty hard to stalk spooky trout when someone's launching pinecones at them. But we did have fun and got to catch a few fish in Hat Creek (put and take stocked trout). Still, I think my son was much more excited about a little water snake that we caught than by any of the trout.

I will say that we saw some really nice looking trout in Manzanita Lake and I'd like to get back there to really give it a shot. Maybe next year!

Cheers,
Mike

[neil]

Great photos, glad you had fun!