November fly fishing for trout. Which flies?!

[mahmichael]

Hi all,

I bought a float tube today and very excited! I want to do some fly fishing this week in a lake and was wondering what are some good flies to try this time of year. I going after trouts probably around 10-15 inches (well, larger trout are also welcome!).

Thanks
Mike

 

[mrlindeman]

Use wooly buggers in olive and even white. Gold ribbed hares ear nymphs in a size 14 work year round as well. I have always had great luck with egg patterns as well. Good luck to ya! Remember to report back with your findings .

 

[OnTheFly]

The boys aren't going to like that cold water if you know what I mean.:shock: Anyhoot, I'm with Bud especially with the hairs ear and maybe one with a flashback. You might get lucky enough to get into a brief caddis hatch if it's not too cold.

 

[MattZ]

i was art hagg lake 3 times the last 10 days and i will tell you what was actually in the water. there are midge everywhere this time of year. so use blood worms or small dark nymphs for that. If you see bulges in the water, but the fish are not coming out of the water, thats probably what they are on. you will get a callibaetis hatch, so carry some lighter nymphs in size 16 and 14 in case that happens, then some adams parachutes or whatever light colored parachute fly. this time of year fish should be shallow, not deep.

I fish 2 flies in tandem in stillwaters. its my biggest secret. i even fish 3 sometimes. i almost always start with a callibaetis or dragon fly nymph on top, and a black and red leech pattern i tie. I usually fish one flashy fly and one subdued fly. when i key in on feeding fish, i almost always go down in size, and fish a big or medium nymph on top and a small one at the point. just figure 8 crawl it nice and slow after casting right at feeding fish. the takes can be very hard. I got about 15 or so the other day including a couple beefy cutts between 12 and 330, but last time i was out i got to hagg right at the end of the mayfly hatch (3:30), i got 4 in the first 30 minutes, then the bite just dropped.

 

[mahmichael]

Thank you guys very much. I will let you know for sure if I catch anything!
So when I'm fishing a nymph, should I move and kinda troll? Or should i stay in one place ?

 

[OnTheFly]

Nymphs are swimmers and crawlers so what ever you do, do it slowly. Try trolling a Zug Bug or pulling a hairs ear along the bottom or just above the weeds with a two to three inch strip.

 

[MattZ]

i do both, i troll a bit real slow and retrieve some at the same time when searching for fish, just kind of taking up the slack and adding twitches. remember, nothing in nature can move in spurts more than 5 times its body length or so, so if you are fishing a one inch bugger, it should not move much more than 5 inches at a time... when i find them, i hold still in the tube and then just retrieve normal. cast at the shore too sometimes, not many people cast right up onto the shore, but if it is at least 2 ft of water, it holds fish, sometimes very big fish. lots of bugs and minnows near shore.

 

[osmosis]

I like seeing the hare's ear brought up a few times. Generally the first thing I try when I go mess around in the lakes.

 

[mahmichael]

So I'm back!!

Thank you guys for suggestions.
I started early morning and had everything setup by 8:30. I spend two hours nymphing with Hares ear, midge, ... (tandem style), and NOTHING!
I saw some few fish rise but not really that much that worth changing strategy! Then I started feeling very cold and decided to take a break around 10:30. The weather was nice and sun poked a couple of times! :dance:

So I changed the flies to dry flies and went back on the float tube. I missed two bites. It was getting really cold again!! After an hour I hooked a nice trout on a brown mayfly. :dance:
This time the bite was very subtle! It was like she took the fly without coming out of water even a little bit! Does that happen a lot?!
My main problem was that the dry flies got wet very soon and I had to cast again and shake the water out!

Anyways, this is my trout (around 12")


She had a lot of eggs! I took them out and they are in my fridge now, what can I do with them? How should I use them for fishing?!! Any suggestion? :think:


Around 2 PM, it started raining so I left!

 

[osmosis]

Ha! those are rather mature for a trout.
Sprinkle some cure on those bad boys.


About the subtle sip, you will see a massive array of different types of dry fly takes. From insane to "where'd that fly go". Generally there is a decently noticeable sip.

 

[bigsteel]

nice job on the fish,,if the fish are rising subtlety,tie on a small emerger off your dry fly.

 

[MattZ]

nice work. if your dry was sinking often, and they were not quite breaking the surface, they were either eating chirnomids, immature damsel nymphs, or callibaetis nymphs abotu to hatch or callibaetis dries that had already hatched and fallen into the water but were sinking. good job working it out. thats most of the fun really. if you have bead head nymphs, or a nice small beaded wooley bugger, try that too.