FERTILE HIGH-MOUNTAIN LAKES
My equipment for rich valley lakes is a
road show three fly rods, three reels
with extra spools for a number of lines,
eight boxes of flies, two kinds of strike
indicators, a wallet with four compartments
for different types of hand-tied leaders,
neoprene waders and fins, an inflatable kick
boat for ponds, and a specially rigged
aluminum boat and motor for bigger lakes.
Altogether this collection weighs close to
a thousand pounds a bit much to backpack.
My equipment for regular hike-in lakes is
trimmed to the ounce. The two rods in aluminum
tubes are my walking sticks and aren't counted
in the weight. The rest of my tackle scales at
nine pounds and six ounces and even this
collection is trimmed for multiday trips if
there's no beast of burden along to pack the
excess.
The weight limitation is not a handicap
on most high-mountain lakes. These are
basic fisheries, and trout in them have
limited feeding options. A floss blow line,
a floating line and a sink-tip line, and
two boxes of flies and a few leaders, along
with a couple of rods and reels, give me
everything I need to catch fish most of
the time. I can match the surface foods
midges, mayflies, caddisflies, or terrestrials
or work the drop-offs just beyond the
shallow rim with weighted nymphs.
The crisis happens on rich mountain lakes.
I'll get snubbed by nice fish and my blood
boils with the need to catch them. I want
all thousand pounds of my gear. The spoiled
trout in these waters feast on specific food
items in particular sections of the lake,
leaving the rest of the lake nearly barren.
You have to put the right fly at the right
depth and make it act the right way often
this requires specialized, not general, equipment.
Fertile mountain lakes, if they're isolated
enough to discourage hordes of anglers, may
grow enormous trout for the high country.
The fish sometimes average four pounds;
and in places where everything is right,
there might be trout that surpass that
magical ten-pound mark. The food base
includes not only heavy hatches of midges,
mayflies (Tricorythodes and Callibaetis),
and caddisflies (Banksiola, Onocosmoecus,
Oecetis, Clistoronia, and Agrypnia),
but also major populations of damselflies and
dragonflies. There are also scuds, snails,
and leeches, and maybe even crawfish. And
like any other mountain lake, these waters
get a daily shower of terrestrials during
the summer months.
RICH VALLEY LAKES:
Rich valley ponds and lakes are quite
different from most high-mountain waters.
They are often shallow; most mountain lakes
sit in canyons and have a rim of shallows
with a deep center. The bottoms in valley
lakes are fertile soil; most mountain lakes
have stony bottoms of hard, infertile igneous
rocks such as granite. In valley lakes, aquatic
weeds are abundant; most mountain lakes have
little or no rooted vegetation. Valley lakes
have heavy populations of crayfish, leeches,
snails, scuds, and nymphs and larvae; most
mountain lakes have spotty populations of aquatic
insects (with the exception of midges) and
few higher life forms.
Since trout have many more feeding options,
and grazing grounds of extensive weed beds
and mudflats, they can and sometimes do ignore
insects on the surface in rich lakes. They
may simply be stuffed to the point of satiation.
It happens on these waters (especially with the
biggest fish). This hardly ever happens on
infertile, high-mountain lakes.
It's not that dry flies are ineffective on
rich waters. They are often the best patterns
for catching large numbers of trout and
surface techniques should be used more by
still-water anglers. The problem is that
rich waters are much more complex fisheries
than most high-mountain lakes. Trout can
find food in different areas and at different
depths in these valley habitats, and unlike
the opportunistic foragers of infertile waters,
trout feed selectively when one food type is
particularly abundant. On these waters you
need a full range of equipment, tactics, and
fly patterns.
In valley lakes the trout are often so
wary of fish-eating birds that they won't
rise when there's flat water and a bright
sun. Those same fish rise freely, even
during the middle of the day when the
wind is blowing. The broken surface
provides safety. Choppy water and any
kind of hatch guarantees surface feeding
on almost any lake, but on valley lakes
these conditions often bring the largest
trout to the top. The unsuspecting angler
might never see a rise in the broken water,
but for the lake specialist fishing the top
when the wind is blowing becomes a matter
of faith. ~ GL
To be continued, next time: More on the productivity of lakes
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