The lake is full once more with water running over the spillway. There has been some runoff fill but the vast majority is from the springs that feed the lake.
There was, however, an interesting development. My thoughts are that there was ground heave due to freezing but there is not as much lake as there was before. Most of the south end of the lake bed is above water! It is not dry. It is a swamp, but it is above water and used to be navigable by canoe. I guess we will have to see what we have after runoff and thawing are complete.
There was some die-off, but I am not sure if this was due to the lowering of the lake or due to freeze-thaw this time of year. I saw a half dozen fish in places where there was no water a month ago. It still isn’t what you want to see. The smallest I spotted was barely more than a minnow.
The otters are finding fish. Those are fish heads on the ice. The rest of the fish has been eaten.
Last of all is the semi fishable water I found just in front of the spillway. The lake bed drops off right where the edge of the ice is. I was thinking of trying a small woolly bugger right along the edge of the ice. Anyone have a better idea?
IF we get a little sun Saturday, the fishing picture could improve dramatically. It was warm enough to melt today, but over cast.
Interesting report kbproctor. Especially the new swamp part of the lake. I’d cast my fly onto the ice and wait half a minute then slowly strip line until the fly barely slips into the water. Thinking i’d use an unweighted fly so i got a slow sink. Good idea with the woolly bugger.
… and looking forward to future installments, too.
You have had an unusual opportunity to watch this lake drain and refill, and change along the way. Will be interesting to see how the fish come back and where they hang out once things stabilize.
Don’t recall if you actually took GPS readings on those springs ?? Won’t be long before you can get the canoe out and check them out.
John
P.S. I don’t do stillwater, so I can’t help you on flies or presentation. Bet George knows what he’s talking about.
I just popped down to the lake to see what things were like. The lake is a whole 100 yards from the cabin. There was a little skim of ice where things were open yesterday but most interesting was that in one spot that I saw the two dead fingerlings, I saw at least a dozen live ones swimming around like they had good sense.
This led me to another thought. If the little fish are coming up into the shallowest parts around the edge of the ice, the bigger ones are not going to be far off. The little ones are there for protection from the bigger fish as well as a bit of sunlight, I would suppose, and the big one know where the little ones went and are waiting for one to stray. If there are fish big enough to eat a couple of those larger fingerlings…
So, woolly Bugger it is, maybe a Little Brook Trout streamer I tied up just because I thought it was pretty. Wet it sure looks like a minnow to me.
Who would have ever thought a 7’6" 4w would be the rod of the day on a lake?
As for GPS readings, I did not. What ticks me off is that I had my iPhone out with me and could have done so very easily. Two of the larger springs are in the swampy area. I do remember about where they are and as soon as I can get out on a canoe, I should be able to see them through the water and will mark them as best as I can.
At one point as recent as last month when I was up, that portion of the lake was under water while the lake still had 14" or so to go before it was full again. There are places where it looks like the ground is a good foot above water level now. The lake bed on that south end of the lake has heaved a bunch because it was about 3-4 feet deep at that end of the lake last summer. I had stepped down to it to explore the lake bed back in January. It was definitely much lower even then. Remember, this is not wash down from upstream. There is no upstream.
I’m thinking that as the lake bed was covered and the water froze in late January and into February, that water got underneath the frozen cap from the springs and has lifted it as the lake filled. That is just a guess on my part. I just can not see the ground swelling that much. After all, we are talking 4-5 FEET of swell.
I might add that there is a rotting vegetation stench at that end of the lake from the moss that was on the bottom now being wet and decomposing on the surface.
I didn’t have much luck. I did get a shredded bugger out of the deal but think it was the ice rather than fish that shredded it. I will be back up the 30th to teach Cub Scout leaders how to take Cubs camping. There should be a lot less ice. I WILL get some fishing in.
The really interesting thing I ran into was that I had maybe 500 sq ft of open water and actually saw a hatch come off. Super tiny bugs. Never was able to figure out what they were. This was in clear, shallow water about a foot deep at most. No fish to be seen feeding.
I am happy to report that the swamp is no more. That part of the lake bottom was actually floating! When the ice finally came off, that chunk floated out toward the dam at the other end of the lake and deposited itself other than where it belonged. For almost 6 weeks, nothing was caught in the lake on any kind of gear.
Draining the lake was a definite trauma, but we are seeing signs of recovery. The food supply for the fish was seriously harmed with the death of the bottom plants when the lake was drained. It was hit again when the west end of the lake bottom floated east and deposited itself on top of what was trying to grow on that end. Hatches are off, but are slowly getting better. Everything suffered from oxygen depletion to some degree.
The water is clearing. The number of fish is lower than it was, but they could be seen rising to a small chronomid hatch.
While I was there, I didn’t catch anything, but I think I was using the wrong flies which I am prone to do. One person was fishing off the dam with Kastmasters and caught 3 nice fish. That isn’t really off all that much from last summer. The fish looked healthy and were returned to the lake.
As mentioned before, there are fingerlings from last fall’s spawning. There was not a huge number of fish seen dead, only 40 or so. The lake is healing. It will take time, but signs of it can be seen already. Thankfully, the work done on the headgate should not need to be repeated for another 100+ years. We will see how things go this summer and how the healing progresses.
Interesting weekend already! The Ranger left me the keys to the camp and I had it all to myself for a few hours while he took a few days off after the summer camping season.
Unfortunately, the fishing has been very slow. Reports have it that no one is catching anything with flies and there are very few fish being caught with lures or bait.
The water is clear. There was a mayfly hatch about mid afternoon and I was sure I could see fish sipping bugs off the surface, but nothing would take any of the dries I offered. I also tried some soft hackles, nymphs and mini buggers without so much as a bump.
I will hit it again tomorrow as soon as I can. I may not be able to get out until afternoon as there will be two more Troops checking in and a wedding at the Chapel. I want to take a canoe out and see what the far (South) side of the lake is like. The east and north sides get all the pressure from bank fishing. I may try and hike back into the northwest corner and check out some of the ponds in there, too.
The lake sure looks better…now if only you could raise some fish. I’m thinking like you are though, way back in that corner where no one fishes should do the trick.
Well, I know there are at least two fish in the lake. I got a couple up by the dam with a mini woolly bugger fished deep. I took the row boat out but about the time I got where I wanted to be, thunder started rumbling so I headed back in.
The two I caught were about 12" and looked healthy. They went back in to be caught again.
I never did get out to the corner of the lake I wanted to. Every time I started out with a row boat or canoe, the thunder started rumbling and I headed back to shore. I got pretty good at dragging boats to and from the water, though.
I talked to the Ranger a little while ago and they are going to try to get some rainbows stocked before the Hooked on Tahosa program kicks off. With the few brookies that are left and a fresh supply of 'bows, that will give the boys the two species of fish they need to catch for the Fishing and Fly Fishing Merit Badges. If things work like they did that last time the lake was stocked, the population will become fairly self sustaining. If the head gate repairs had not required draining teh lake as far down as it was, stocking would not have been necessary. The last time the lake was stocked was about 6 or 7 years ago.
So… Now we wait and see what happens. It has been an interesting journey.
Just a quick report on the lake. I was up over the weekend and the lake was beautiful as ever. The Council has officially made the lake Catch & Release Only for the time being. The ranger is encouraging Flies and Artificial Lures Only as well.
Kastmasters are working great. Boys were catching fish right and left with those at about 20-30 ft from shore at a depth of about 6ft., but I was skunked on woolly buggers, nymphs, or soft hackles during the day and on BWO and Royal Coachman dries while the hatch was coming off. All of those used to work really well, but not recently.
I am seriously thinking about tying up a few bright yellow Woolly Buggers with a brass bead and a little lead wire just to see what would happen. Mimic the Kastmaster.
I will be up again this coming weekend for the Hooked on Tahosa program. A few had asked if the “kill and eat a fish” requirement was still in place. I am happy to relay that it is not for the Fly Fishing Merit Badge. The boys are also only required to catch one species of fish, but still a minimum of two fish.
A streamer about 2 inches long with some crystal flash tied in might get the trout excited. Good luck nexct wknd and the trout will get big if they keep the catch and release rule going.
There was a little skim of ice where things were open yesterday but most interesting was that in one spot that I saw the two dead fingerlings, I saw at least a dozen live ones swimming around like they had good sense.
