I went home to visit the family this last weekend and had the opportunity to fish Aeneas for the third time this season. The fishing was a bit sporadic but decent for the end of August.

I started out the morning at 6:30 and had the lake to myself. Wooly Buggers always do well for me in this lake but I didn't get a bump for the first hour. Around 7:30 I switched to a Werner Shrimp and picked up a nice 14 incher by the water inlet.

After another 30 minutes without a bump on multiple patterns, I switched to size 2 large black leach pattern. I immediately got a couple of strikes but couldn't connect. I figured the tail was too long as the fly was over 3 inches in length so I trimmed the tail a bit. Again I got multiple strikes but no solid hook ups. I trimmed the tail some more and the fishing went dead. Keeping with the black leach theme I put on a bigger wooly bugger and got into a nice 16 incher. The fishing once again went dead after I released this fish.

As I was getting ready to go I put a new #2 Black Leach back on and as soon as I got near the water inlet I was into a nice fish. Another 16 incher to hand. Minutes later I had a 22 incher to hand. Now this was more like it! I missed another 20+ incher that had the hook pull out during the fight and had to more solid strikes in the middle of a sharp turn in the rowboat but was unable to hook up. Then the fishing went dead again and that was it for the morning.

In 3 hours of fishing I landed 4, lost 3 more and had over a dozen strikes. The fish average is a bit smaller this year but lots of 14-16 inchers will make next seasons opener a lot of fun.

I had the lake to myself the whole morning and highly recommend a trip to this fun lake in Sept. if you are looking for a fun fly fishing trip. Blue Lake (Sinalahekin) is right over the hill as a back up which is a double bonus.

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