Fishing Early Season Lakes

article and flies by Fred Curtis

Here we are standing on the shore of my favorite lake, watching the ice flows move first east, then west as the winds shift. This is it! Spring! I've been waiting out a long winter just for this moment.

What to do first? Set my fly equipment for the early lake char that will be cruising the ice flows? Tie up the lines for the elusive kokanee? Install a bloodworm fly for the wary rainbow trout? Or, try to entice that dennison of the deep, the brook trout, to strike at my special woolybugger. Choices, choices, choices. I have the whole day; let's do them all!

First, the early season Lake Char. We'll need a slow sinking line, a 7 foot leader with 8 lbs. tippet and that imitator pattern, a crimson muddler. This will got their attention as they criuse along the surface of the lake feeding on everything that was left in the ice all winter.

Next, my choice for kokanee (land-locked sockeye salmon) is a floating line with a 10 foot sink tip, 9 foot leader, tippet size 3 lbs. Success with a number of patterns is up to the imagination, but I'll tie on my favorite, a Kokanee Thriller. This trip out, I remembered my field glasses, so we can locate schools of frollicking fish. We'll troll through them at a slow speed, then cast, and strip, strip, strip, 8 inches at a time. Hey, it works for me.

Now for those secretive Kamloops Rainbows. A long leader, 20 feet plus, attached to a full floating line, tippet at 2 lbs. rigged with the first blood worm or chironomid pattern I can find in my fly box. Yes, don't forget to take the anchors, one to lock the bow and the other to solidly lash the stern. This will allow us to retrieve our casts, a quarter of an inch at a time, over the drop offs. This year I promise to parallel lift my rod to those gentle takes and let them set the barbless hook themselves.

Last, we will need that fast sink line with a 4 or 5 foot leader, tippet to 4 lbs. and my special pulsator pattern, the Crystal Wooly Bugger, light olive, the first for this season. These slow moving brookies will soon turn into speed demons when they slam into that 4 inch strip close to the bottom of the lake. Boy, those fish can sure move out off the shoals in a hurry!

Although the early season weather can be somewhat unpredictable, if not darn right cold, the uncrowded fishing can often make it all worth while. Try a few of my favourite strategies and see how they work for you. If not, look at the bright side, at least you got to spend a day at the lake. And, although you may be a bit ahead of the season, you're also ahead of the mosquitoes!