Lakes Miller Lake Fishing Reports

[TheKnigit]

My dad, brother, buddy, and I all went to Miller Lake this last weekend in hopes of finding a High Cascades deer and catching a few trout at our favorite lake. The deer hunting was dismal and we ended up spending most of our time on the lake itself. The fishing was awesome. We didn't limit out every day, but we did end up coming home with about 30'ish trout for the 3 days we spent their, and that is after the customary fish fry 1 night. Each one of us landed at least 1 trout that was in the 15 1/2" - 16" range, and each one of us lost a fish that was pushing 18". My brother hooked into one of the largest browns I have ever seen in that lake, this thing had to be every bit of 20", and I hooked 2 18" rainbows on my fly rod. 1 we landed and 1 we lost when it dove under the boat and wrapped itself around the prop.

We trolled flies mostly, with my dad and I taking turns with our fly rods out of the bow as we went around the lake. Orange buck haired caddis seemed to be the hot fly, and it didn't seem to matter if it was tied up or down or the size. We also tried a couple of brown nymphs, mosquito pattern, blue upright, muddler minnow, and a grey bodied caddis with a little bit of success. My brother caught a small kokanee on a fly, and I landed my first brook trout out of the lake on a muddler minnow. Everything else we caught was either a brown or a rainbow. We only hooked into 2 fish on hardware. Both were nice 16" rainbows hooked trolling a spoon and casting a spinner at the dock. Both setups were rainbow pattern of some sort.

All in all it was a great weekend. Hopefully we can make another trip back next year.

 

[troutdude]

Great report! I've not seen many tales, from Miller. So thanks, for sharing. That place, is on my bucket list!

P.S. Love the pic of Mutley, and his/her camo blanket. LOL

 

[TheKnigit]

It used to be our family camping spot, which my brother and I are trying to resurrect that tradition. The weather can be a little interesting there. It wasn't to bad this trip, but I would prepare for anything, no matter what the weather man says. The mosquitoes can be pretty thick sometimes, but we didn't see any while we were there. The gravel road in can be a bit of a bummer as well, it is rather washboardy and slow going. It is definitely well worth the trip though.

 

[troutdude]

Even in August, in the Cascades (or the desert plateau)...ALWAYS be prepared for winter weather!

 

[Gulfstream]

looks like a very nice trip

 

[TheKnigit]

The family and I spent a week at Miller Lake as a farewell camping trip to my Dad. I couldn't have asked for a much better trip. The weather was good, the company was wonderful and the fishing was just about everything I could have hoped for. We tried trolling hardware a couple of times, with no major success. We did end up getting a couple of fish on a black rooster tail, but most of our fish were caught on flies. We would typically troll around the lake, trying to stick to the shelf, trolling flies from a couple of rods with someone sitting in the bow with a fly rod flipping it back towards the back. We ended up catching a lot of browns in the 8"-10" range, which is typically rare for us as most of the browns that we pick up are 14"+. I don't think we ended up with a Rainbow that was under 13" long. My 3 year old son started showing us all up once we finally convinced him to stop messing with his fishing pole. All in all a good trip.

 

[my2labs]

What an incredible way to honor your old man! Hats off to you sir. And your family.

 

[Chromatose]

Condolences out to you and yours about your Dad`s passing.

What a Great way to pay tribute!

 

[TheKnigit]

Thanks guys. It was a really good and hard trip. Both my brother and I were able to catch several fish on the fly rod that dad had built. I am still trying to find a photo of the fly that was the big winner. It was something my brother asked me to tie up, and it ended up working so well that I ended up tying a dozen or so of them and we gave a couple away to some guys who were camped not to far away from us. I never did hear if they ended up using them with any success or not.

 

[Gulfstream]

NICE!

 

[Troutski]

Maybe that Guy set a personal record... You did great...

Chuck

 

[TheKnigit]

I spent some time at a buddies house yesterday evening tie flies. I tied up a several of the fly that worked well for us, since I couldn't find one in my box.