Fly Fish the "Edges!"

Do you remember how windy is was in the spring? Well it seems that we are having a repeat performance. Wind can be your friend and it can also be a real challenge to fly fish with. We have been out the last few days and the trout are definitely putting the feedbag on before that icy skin covers our pot hole lakes.

Today, Karen and I headed east a couple of hours to a reservoir. We had never been there before but we wanted to give it a go! We brought our pram and we hoped to fly fish out of it! When we arrived, the boat launch area was closed because of construction. We could have hand bombed the pram to the water but we decided to wader up and walk the shore. Karen started out with a Glen's Leech and I tied on a Tokaryk  Special 2.0. I hooked a large tiger trout that shook off just as I was steering it to the net. Darn. The wind was amping up too! The water on the reservoir was starting to get angry!

Karen tied on a Tokaryk Special and she connected with a few very nice rainbows. I hooked a few tiger trout and then several rainbows. The other fisherman at the reservoir wanted to know what we were fly fishing with. One fisherman asked us for a couple. He was in business. He soon hooked a large rainbow that I am pretty sure became dinner at his house.

The wind continued to blow harder and harder. We worked our way along the shoreline and caught lots of rainbows, several tiger trout and near the end of the day; Karen landed a decent brown trout!

Karen and I looked for promising water to probe. We found week lines with a drop off right behind them We worked those drop offs with our Tokaryk Specials just 3 to 5 feet down below a strike indicator! We constantly had to backhand cast because of the wind direction. We were used to doing that. We luckily didn't need to bomb out long casts. Most of the other guys were trying to cast far out into the reservoir. The trout were cruising right at their feet.

I saw the same thing yesterday at Boulder Lake. The rainbows were right on the edges merely 6 or 7 feet from shore.

As water temperatures drop, the window for getting out is quickly closing! Bundle up and get out there! I don't want to think about the winter shack nasties yet!