Chinook Arch Chironomid Action at West Lake

A chinook arch formed over the western sky but the wind behaved itself, unlike yesterday. Well Karen and I decided to head out to West Lake, aka; the Fish and Game Lake. We were out on the water at 11 am and we were into trout right away. We set up with Rusty Nail chironomids, one of my favourite patterns that was developed by John Kent!

We set up in 12 to 13 feet of water and fished 10 feet below our indicators with two Rusty Nails. We did not change our set up for the next 4 hours. The rainbows were definitely on our chironomids. The interesting thing was the rainbows had a lot of daphnia in the throat samples. I suspect the trout were straining daphnia earlier in the day, then chironomids.

 

Fabulous Last Few Days on the Water-Chironomids Were On the Menu

Karen, Wayne, Doug, Ken, Jay, Rick and I have been enjoying some early season chironomid fly fishing at a local lake. We had been using Tokaryk Specials 2.0 and Glen's Leech with success as well. 

On a hunch and seeing some chironomid shucks on the water, we decided to try chironomids. ...and we were  pleasantly surprised to watch our strike indicators dive down numerous times. Black Sally Chironomids got the job done as did a dull "chromie" we call the smoke buzzer. Lately we have also seen damsels heading for shore to become adults! There is a lot going on out on the water. It is an excellent time to get out to your favourite trout lake!

After taking throat samples, I needed to tie up a new chironomid, essentially a "dull" chromie. Smoke buzzer wrap over white thread makes for an excellent body for this pupa!

As usual, we had to find a spot and then the correct depth. Watching for emerging chironomids on the surface and shucks helped us figure out where to try! Once we had that figured out, it was game on.

Smoke Buzzer Wrap Chironomid

Hook: Alec Jackson Crystal Covert size 15 or 1760 Daiichi size 16

Thread: White 8/0

Bead: Black, 3/32nds

Gills: Uni Stretch

Rib: Black wire, small

Body: White thread with smoke buzzer wrap over top

"Double" Chironomid Black Sally

Sandhill Cranes

What?

Damsels are on their way to shore already!

Double Tiger!