Previous Next

Wanted to do some fly-fishing, so up at o'dark-thirty and headed north to Lake Howard. Got pontoon boat inflated, strung two fly-rods, one with floating double-taper, the other with med. density sink-tip, weight forward. Tied on a black bunny leech, size 4 on the sink-tip, an orange soft-hackle on the floating. On the lake fishing, about 7:45 AM. Lake was placid at the start, a few fish rising, but no discernible hatch coming off. Air temp was 56 degrees, water temp at 10' was 66 degrees. Started down the center of the lake from the launch, and within 5 minutes had a hit on the bunny. Over the next two hours I had, conservatively, thirty hits on the bunny, none on the soft hackle. Tried 4 or 5 different patterns on the floating line, until I got hits on an olive Wooley Bugger. The bunny was a big fly, and most fish were taking the tail of it... I did some serious trimming, but most of the time the fish would spit the fly after the initial hit. Did land one 10" Rainbow with the hook point through the eye, so retained it. C & R another three and lost two 20" class Rainbows each of which came out of the water at least six times before throwing the hook, one I had within a foot of the net! The olive was also producing hits, the fish were taking it very aggressively... retained two 12" Rainbows with the hook point deep in their tongues. Released another 3 or 4... fishing slowed dramatically about 10:30 as the sun was high overhead. Very few hits until about 2:00 PM when heavy cloud cover blotted out the sun... fish came alive again. Had switched from the bunny (now heavily trimmed) to a bead-head black Sparkle Bugger and it drew hits... C & R another 3... besides the scores of hits... the fish just wouldn't stay on the hook! The last hour I fished seriously to round out my limit... wanted to fill the new smoker my wife bought me for my birthday! Caught and retained my fifth Rainbow at 3:45, off the water by 4:00.
A truly remarkable day... had at least 60 trout on a fly for an initial run. Fish were really feisty, jumping out of the water multiple times and hard to bring to the net. Saw 10 to 12 boats on the lake during the day, some more successful than others. The water was somewhat cloudy... best success was along the northeast shoreline, keeping my flies along the weedbeds close to shoreline. Awesome day! PTL!

05cr125r

5/16/2013 6:43:00 AM

nice catch man

bothellfisher

5/16/2013 9:32:00 AM

Nice fish Stansjoy- I wanted to know how you like your SeaEagle I have been looking at the new Mean Green Fishing Machine http://www.seaeagle.com/FramelessPontoonBoats.aspx. I need some feedback from a real person.. Or at least someone who is not on their website trying to sell it to tell me how they like it.

Stansjoy

5/16/2013 9:57:00 AM

Bothellfisher, thanks for the comment. I really like the SeaEagle, very easy to set up and a breeze on the water. The new Green has a feature that is better, with the swivel seat on a pedestal. With mine, I cannot rotate 360 degrees. I am a large man, and the SeaEagle is made for a more normal sized person... not much "moving around" space for me. Cannot attach the stripping apron, because my legs are too high... the bow bag is useless because I can't reach it. As far as the company and the product... first class! Hope that helps a bit. Good luck! PTL!

bothellfisher

5/16/2013 11:59:00 AM

Thanks Stansjoy... I too am a big guy which Is why I was looking at the new Green version with the pedestal and swivel seat... Good info and thanks gain... Tight Linz!~

Leave a Comment:

Login

Flag

×

Why is this comment inappropriate?

Close Submit

Delete this comment? Provide reason.

No Yes

Edit

×

Cancel Save