Although it’s really slow, and usually only one fish.
My “home lake” has started stocking trout for the winter. I can’t seem to get them to bite. I need to get some brown deer body hair and make some pellet flies. I have, however, started catching some small bluegills on some FEB Deer Hair Caddis patterns, size 16. The fish are up against the bank, in what’s left of the weeds, trying to stay warm in the late afternoon. Water temp is usually in the mid-50’s to low 60’s.
Try a 12 or 14 bhpt stripped in slow and steady. Works for me on stocker trout in the lakes around here in KY. Bead Head Hare’s Ears work pretty well too.
Jeff
These have been working really well for me:
Opps, I meant to say, “the water might NOT be warm…”
Thanks for the suggestions.
Do you have a recipe for your flies, Dave?
Thanks.
Bob
Recipe:
Hook - #10 1XL Nymph hook of your choice
Thread - 6/0 UniThread color of your choice (black used in the above picture)
Bead - your choice brass or glass bead
Body - tan dubbing, dubbed heavily and brushed out (can be reinforced with wire ribbing for extra durability)
Hackle - soft hackle feather of your choice ( I prefer hen pheasant, India hen, or grouse)
The bushy tan body seems to be the trigger, since the pattern continues to catch trout even after the hackle has been destroyed. Works with a retrieve and also beneath an indicator. I sometimes also add a tail of turkey… Looks good and works…but doesn’t seem necessary.
50’s and 60’s are pretty warm for trout. So that’s probably the reason why they are acting sluggish. One of the things I like to do for lake fishing when the water gets that warm here, is a fly under an indicator, and slow (like 1 strip every 20-30 seconds) Amazing how well it works.
Trout get more active in the fall as the water cools off even more. Our waters are hovering around 35 degrees right now, and the trout are attacking flies like crazy.
Thanks for the recipe, Dave.
Bob
I tied up a couple Pellet Flies last night. Haven’t used them yet. I also heard that a friend saw a trout circling a midge like a shark before it inhaled the midge. I’ve been wanting to tie some midge patterns; this gave me a kick in the rump to do it. I tied up a couple Griffth’s Gnats in size 16. Man, those things are tiny! And I’ve got some size 20 hooks coming! I need to get some CDC feathers and do a parachute post midge pattern.
Hi AllanOK,
I caught some trout from the ones they put in our local lake last year on midge flies. The midges I saw that were of any size at all were mayflies, but there were much smaller midges present also.
I tied up some midges with the hackle trimmed on the bottom like thorax flies, and caught a few fish on them, but I tied them like a Wulff, not like true thorax fly, again just trimmed the hackle flat on the bottom. I usually didn’t see the fish rising until just 30 minutes before dark. The flies I tied were number 18s, and I think also number 20s, if I remember correctly. I will say, however, that part of the time my #18s looked like B-52s out there compared to the live mayflies.
I tied them in olive with grizzly hackle, in cream with cream hackle, and in black with dark hackle. I also tied some soft hackle versions of the same flies, and dressed them with floatant so that the flies would float in the film. It was cold…I wore warm stuff.
I would then watch to see where fish were rising, and try to get close enough to fish that spot.
Regards,
Gandolf