Stanislaus Report

[Lee Haskin]

I had a couple of great outings, this past weekend, fishing my favorite lake. The bank feeders were out in force, picking off a myriad of bugs, making for a great trip. It seems that multiple hatches always present a challenge, and this trip was no exception. Is it the October Caddis? No, maybe the PMD's? No such luck. It was the tiny midges (as usual) and most of the trout were midging, which makes for tough fishing. Even though the midges were probably #20's, I stayed with the #18 dry, and they worked fine. Fortunately, the bows and browns were willing to look up and suck in the tiny dries, as long as it was in the right spot. Many takes were small dimples, barely seen!

It was interesting that Friday evening I caught 1 brown and 10 or 12 rainbows, all 14-18"!
Saturday morning, it reversed. 1 small rainbow, and 8 browns. mmmm? Most of the browns were 12-14", with 2- 19" browns that really put a bend in my 4 wt., tangled in the weeds, and generally putting on a great show.

As I have found numerous times, there were several guys trolling buggers, and unaffected, or uninterested, in the dry fly action. Even though I had my "streamer rod" rigged up, I was able to fish the dries each day. It was a "little piece of heaven".

What a great time-of-year to be out fishing in the Sierras!

Cheers,
Lee