Hwy 88 lakes not so good.....................

BS · 08-08-2019, 12:13 AM

I did lots of this forum searches and Google reading about Caples and was quite intrigued with the fact the the lake is only 65 feet deep at maximum.
Hummmm........pretty interesting stuff.

I took the advise of Smitty Fish and markem8 and fished both Caples and Kirkwood lakes today.

I was greeted this morning at Caples with a southerly wind and whitecaps.
I decided to launch from the "new" launch ramp.
Gave my five bucks to the "Iron Ranger" and was on the water and fishing @ 10:00.

Man oh' man..........
I took some pretty hard hits from the stern quartering waves in my Watermaster raft.
I didn't see another raft or float tube the whole time I was there.

I fished a balanced leech, midges, and mayfly nymphs and never had a strike.
I asked 3 of the 4 boats (trolling hardware) that I saw on the water if they had hooked any fish.
Their replies were a big "No.......Nothing".

At 2:30 I decided I'd had enough of being "kidney punched" and packed up and drove up to Kirkwood Lake.

I fished from shore till 7:00 and only had one strike on a mayfly nymph (BS Nymph) under an indicator.
A couple of groups did O.K. and their chatter was about using powerbait.......ughhhhh........

Met a nice guy, and his wife, from Sonora that was very inquisitive about my two-hand micro trout switch rod and casting distance.
I convinced him to give it a try, handed him my rod, and with a little coaching, he managed to roll out to about 50 feet on his 5th try.
He was using a single handed rod and was struggling to reach 30 feet with it.
He knows a couple of rod builders at home in Sonora and I think he's going to go two-handed now !!!!!!

When we were walking out he mentioned that he and his wife were staying till Saturday and he wanted to do some (more) stream fishing......he hadn't caught anything in a couple of tries.
In our conversation about fishing the creeks, it didn't sound as if he had much of a fly selection, at least nymph wise, so I said "here" and handed him about a half dozen midges, mayflies, and caddis nymphs to try.
Boy, the look on his face was priceless.........I kinda' felt like Santa Clause !!!!!

So, not much trout love to report and I didn't have to "reveal any of those top secret, unknown, easy to access waters that lie beside state highways..." either.

And one last thing, for those seeking Hope Valley information..................................it was PACKED !!!!!
I've driven by there on the weekend in the past and today LOOKED like a weekend.
I can't imaging what the weekend(s) will look like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots and lots of people everywhere....................

Gotta' get some sleep now..........................................and come up with a plan "B".

Bob

**Bill Kiene semi-retired** · 08-08-2019, 07:01 AM

Thanks Bob for the report.....

I think there use to be more people who fly fished those lakes on Hwy 88 on our Forum?

Maybe it is suffering from the drought?

I would think that June and October would be OK timing?

Caples is at 7800 feet.

Sept 2 is Labor Day so hopefully the crowds will thin out some, especially during the week.

I always like the "high country" in Aug/Sept.

**Smitty Fish** · 08-08-2019, 08:54 AM

Bill, the lake was drained about 8-9 years ago to fix the gate or gates on the dam. It hasn’t fished the same since then.

Bob, sorry to hear about your experience at Caples. I would try it in the fall , September-November. Not sure if you tried stripping flys when you were there, but that’s what worked for me. Intermediate or a fast sinking line.

**Bill Kiene semi-retired** · 08-08-2019, 11:09 AM

Thanks Smitty...........

Fisheries go through cycles or have events like you mentioned.

**OceanSunfish** · 08-08-2019, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by Bill Kiene semi-retired

Thanks Smitty...........

Fisheries go through cycles or have events like you mentioned.

"Events" like the "events" at Davis Lake come to mind................. 20+ years and counting. Ugh.

**JohnR** · 08-08-2019, 07:57 PM

The wife-unit and I drove by Red Lake last weekend and something is going on with it... the whole lake was a vibrant day-glo green color. I don't know if it was an algae bloom or pollen, but NO ONE was there fishing as it looked sorta toxic.

John