Hello,
I have been dragging flys around on sinking lines for trout in some local lakes for the last couple years. Mostly woolly buggers and careys, with some other softhackle wets mixed in from time to time. It usually produces pretty well, but last night I got the big skunk-o. Not that I can't deal with the occaisional skunking, but I am interested in what some of you lake flyfishers would recomend as the next technique to add to my arsenal. Chironomids? nymphing? something else? Let me know what works for you, include some infromation about lines, flies and tactics if you would be so kind. I am typically in a little aluminum boat with a trolling motor if that makes any difference. Thanks a lot for your help with a novice flyfisher ...
Matt

chironies, peferably of the black bead head variety

Mkorb,

If you're going to troll, I think motor trolling is the least effective because it gives the fly the least action, aside from the steady pull. Trolling by use of oars, and holding the fly line in your hand so that the fly jerks and halts with each stroke has been more productive for me.

I wouldn't troll chironomids or other small midges or mayflies; they don't swim that fast. Anchor or drift with a chronie suspended under your line - better with an indicator so you can see when it goes under. Trout take 'em and spit 'em lightning fast.

A lot of lakes have active damselflies right now. They are usually active from late morning through mid-afternoon. They swim with a wiggly motion near the surface. Fish fairly close to shorelines, using 4-6" strips.

Good luck.

Sg

I'm continually surprised at the apparently tiny number of people who even consider fishing stillwaters with dry flies. During Callibaetis mayfly hatches, fishing a floating emerger or dun imitation can be far more effective than any subsurface technique. Teneral and adult damselfly imitations can be highly effective throughout the day once they have begun hatching in good numbers and will bring up the largest of fish. I've also been able to take fish all day long on emerger or adult midge patterns. Try it, you might like it, and it's a helluva lot more fun than sitting staring at a bobber.

Salmo G. - how do you drink beer while you row? Long straw? Thanks for the info guys. For chironomids, what part of the water column would I be targeting? All of it? Also I have never understood this strike indicator business. is it on the leader? could I put it on the floating part of a sink tip?

Preston - I think it might be how often you hear that a trout feeds subsurface 90% of the time or whatever that old mantra is. .. for me, I started out tying my own flies, so my wet ones worked and my dries did not. Not to mention being a semi-crappy caster. I will give it a shot though, I do love seeing fish take flies off the top ...

Thanks for the responses,
matt

I haven't fly fished for a long time but my memory says to fish Chironomids on a floating line with a long leader and a strike indicator (near the bottem). Kinda like bobber fishin.
The only place I ever tried this was Lenore on the North shore and it worked great...froze my rear end of though.

Mkorb,

No straw, just drop the oars between strokes and give the line a twitch with one hand and hoist the beer bottle with the other. Boy, you really do need help learning to fly fish, don't you?

I've never fished chronies under an indicator, but if I did, I'd attach the indicator so that the chronie imitation was suspended one foot off the lake bottom cuz that's what other anglers tell me they do. I wouldn't use a sink tip line for this application.

Preston,

I don't fish lakes much, but have always read and heard that dry fly fishing is unproductive the vast majority of the time. Exceptions I'm familiar with are the callebaetis and sedges on Chopaka and some BC lakes and the evening pink lady rise on western WA lakes. Most of the time it's dragon fly nymphs, chironomids, damselflies in season, caddis imitations, and then woollybuggers anytime. Although I haven't tried indicator fishing on a lake, I'm not sure how watching a dry fly on a lake is any more interesting than watching the bobber, unless the rise form is spectacular somehow.

Sg

Go back and look at the post "Troutin" a few days ago. I'm bored after 10 Min's of nymphing in still water. So I troll(electric). You can do a lot with motor speed and turning the boat often, stopping letting your line sink for a few Min's, stripping it back toward you. Plus you can cover more water. Look at the "Damsel" fly I was using. I think anything green right now will work when the hatch starts. Trout just hammer that fly. (Full sinking line/floating/sinktip all work)
PS: Not sure why the trout ate that rock?

I won't fish dries in a lake unless I first see trout rising. Then I will attempt to drift within casting distance and cast to a specific fish, to the spot where I think it will be looking next, based on its last couple of rises. No way will I cast out a dry blindly when I see no fish rising. Just ain't gonna happen.
But at dusk, during the "evening glassoff," if trout are rising, or any time you see trout rising, try it. It's a blast when a trout grabs a fly off the surface and then immediately explodes into topwater action. Most of the jumpin'est trout I've caught have been on dries.

As far as trolling, I love my electric, but I often set up a wind drift where I occasionally blip the throttle to control my drift, or even put it in reverse to slow down (in lieu of a drift sock). I'll make alot of turns, free drift and strip in, haul my line out and cast it to structure or weeds or along the dropoff as I drift slowly by. I will correct my course to be sure I'm drifting exactly where I want my fly to go...Very active trolling. I'm standing up alot of the time. To fish like this, I must go alone, as I can't fish this way with someone else in my boat.

To see a really good pic of a primo Callibaetis Emerger pattern, go to the WA flyfishing.com website forum and search for Preston's "Chopaka Emerger." Its back on page 3 or 4 (in the flyfishing forum) by now, in a thread on "Stillwater Patterns."

I also use a sonar to figure out the lake bottom. When I fish a new lake, I "map it out." I go around the shoreline. Then I crisscross the lake several times in a loose grid pattern and pay attention to dropoffs, weedbed covered shoals, submerged woody structure, rockpiles, old creekbeds, and any other thing that might influence where the fish are. And make a mental note of it all....for future reference. This is on smaller lakes...big lakes are just too big to map out the whole lake and remember it all.
My sonar has been an indespensable tool...an absolute must for figuring out lake bottoms. I wouldn't want to fish a new lake without one (but I'm sure that I could succesfully, as I have done so in the past...just spoiled now).

Its a never-ending learning experience, thats for sure.

thanks guys. Hopefully I can get out and try this new beer drinking technique this week ... and maybe some chironomids too ...
matt