Fall stillwater destinations

[Quinnphoto]

Most of my favorite lakes are rounding into shape for the fall bite. I can’t get to all of them but I’ll share places I go and on my list. Feel free to add your favorites. It’s going to be be pretty wide open.

Heenan
Crowley
Lake Davis
Frenchmen Reservoir
Lake Almanor
Fuller
Lewiston
Baum
Milton
Virginia Lakes
Mammoth Lakes
Bridgeport
Pyramid
French Meadows
Eagle Lake

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think I have fished most of those lakes, but not all.

October is my favorite month for fishing in most of these lakes.

Eagle is a little later with Oct, Nov, and Dec being good.

Pyramid is usually late Fall, through the Winter, and early Spring.

[Smitty Fish]

Martis can be good in the fall.

[Zepher]

Quinn - thanks for sharing your lakes. Many would not.

Bill, Oct fishing in these lakes. Very cold. I have a feeling you are pulling streamers. Care to expand ?

Smitty, I didn’t know Martin’s was accessible. It’s been 20 plus years. I learned a few things that day. Especially, those browns pull hard. It’s as if they try to burrow into the mud.

[Smitty Fish]

I was there last spring and got a few. The DFG decided to change the regulations there. No longer a catch and release.
Definitely some fish still in there. Sometimes they can be pretty picky.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Over the past 30 years, Martis Creek reservoir has gone through many changes.

Actually, all the lakes mentioned here have gone through lots of changes over the past several decades.

At these mid-elevation lakes, September is the start, October is usually the best and November can get too cold for some.

This is information I gathered for the last 40 years from fly fishers who focused on one or more of these lakes.

Things are always changing so we can only go year to year to see how they fished.


Anyway, October is the top month for many fly fishers in Nor Cal for many species.

[Quinnphoto]

Quinn - thanks for sharing your lakes. Many would not.

Bill, Oct fishing in these lakes. Very cold. I have a feeling you are pulling streamers. Care to expand ?

Smitty, I didn’t know Martin’s was accessible. It’s been 20 plus years. I learned a few things that day. Especially, those browns pull hard. It’s as if they try to burrow into the mud.

I use midges and balanced leeches once the water temps get colder.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes Bill,

You are more evolved in that more advance lake fishing than most, including me.