Understanding how to read the water

[rchandler]

Hello,

Hoping I can get some help on how to read this. I went to this small lake a couple weekends ago down in Salem and the weather was beautiful. The fish were going nuts. I pulled in a couple dozen that morning. Went back this past weekend and the weather was overcast and a light wind was out and the temp was probably 10-15 degrees cooler. Saw like one fish in the couple hours I was there. This was after the lake was stocked the previous week so I expected it to be even a better day.

So obviously my inexperience at what to do in this situation is showing.

Any tips on how I should have fished this day?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[Grifter]

Hello,

Hoping I can get some help on how to read this. I went to this small lake a couple weekends ago down in Salem and the weather was beautiful. The fish were going nuts. I pulled in a couple dozen that morning. Went back this past weekend and the weather was overcast and a light wind was out and the temp was probably 10-15 degrees cooler. Saw like one fish in the couple hours I was there. This was after the lake was stocked the previous week so I expected it to be even a better day.

So obviously my inexperience at what to do in this situation is showing.

Any tips on how I should have fished this day?

Thanks,
Rick

Hi Rick,
It's of course impossible to make a determination based on scant info (which flies were you using, both times, btw?), but my feeling is that your first experience was the fortunate timing of meeting a significant hatch in full swing (perhaps October caddis or BWO). The fish might have been taking them at each stage in the process: emerging, off the top...The temperature variation between visits seems significant enough to curtail or even prevent a similar hatch and subsequent feeding response from the fish.

Sounds like the typical vicissitudes of fly fishing (That's my unnecessarily pretentious word of the day).
best,
jg

 

[Grifter]

...also...
in such a situation, if I didn't have a good read on what was hatching (based on observation, water temp, season, time of day, etc) I would put on a streamer (a muddler minnow, clouser, beaded wooly bugger, leech pattern) and fish it near structure or cast it out far with some split shot over it, give it some time to get down, then slowly strip it back in. In addition to these searching practices, suspending a generic nymph (a prince or hare's ear) in the water column has often helped me out in lakes/ponds. As the weather gets colder, look to chironomid nymph patterns. They are absolutely deadly in the late fall and winter months.

tight lines...

 

[rchandler]

Thanks Grifter,

Yes I didn't notice any bug activity, but it was a little difficult to see anything really as the water was a little rough on top. That's something I'm having to train myself on is to pay attention to my surroundings. I use to bait cast and I didn't worry about such things which is one of the reasons fly fishing is so captivating to me. I was using a tan/yellow caddis fly and it was a little earlier the second day by a couple hours. I bet you're right about the hatch. I noticed quite a bit of bug activity when I was out there the first time.

Gotta learn to pay attention to these signs more. I've read a couple books on fly fishing and both start off with the most important aspect when you first get on the water is to take a few minutes and examine what's happening.

 

[FlyBum]

TNT... irate: