Any reports on Chopaka? Suggestions for flies??

How about a shower? Actually, I have used pheasant tails, hairs ears, and choronomids with good success. Some success on leech patterns and wooly buggers. Haven't fished there in years, at least 10. Such a long drive. Andy

Dogfish: I like the humor and I will try the shower. I've never made the trip but I thought it would be worth it once. I kinda like to see new country so the long drive should be entertaining. Besides, haven't done all that well lately on my west side spots. Thanks for the input on the flies - sounds like typical east of the mountains stuff.

Micro, I talked to some guys who came into my work who had just been up to chopaka and they said the fish were rather small compared to the past. They said alot of 10" and 12" were caught.

It's a long drive for the small stuff. If we can't find anything big, we may just have to pack up and move. There are some other rather interesting places to check out over there. Besides, we just had a 25 yard waste container delivered. I'm hoping that my better half will have it filled by the time i get back on Monday. I'm making sure that the chain saw is up and running. Even small stuff sounds better than fillin' the container.

We haven't seen much of your posts lately, you must have to work for a living now.

How 'bout you, getting out at all lately?

Micro Brew,TM is quite correct. Lots of small fish showing now,but there are still worthwhile numbers of holdovers to be had. There is a great second generation hatch of Callebaetis Mays that hatches in early September that always gets the larger fish biting.A good chronie hatch then too.

By the way there IS now a serious BASS problem in the lake and it's in need of rehabilitation. Our glorious leader of F&W has gutted the budget of all rehab money for the year. You fly club members and other trout fishermen had better start a heavy program of lobbying to reinstate money for lake rehab.or he'll back door you by just not funding it, despite being overruled on his stupid ban on Rotenone use.

Hmmm, The smaller fish are the plants from 2000 (half of them triploids), but the larger fish are still there. I spent a couple of weeks there at the end of May and early in June and caught only one fish under seventeen inches (the largest was about twenty-two and most were in the eighteen- to twenty-inch range). The smallmouth bass have been in the lake for a few years, but don't really seem to have become a serious problem yet (I didn't catch a single one this year). Chironomids, leeches, scuds and damsels are good year-round, but since Callibaetis are multi-generational and are available to the fish throughout the spring to fall season (albeit going from size 14 down to 18 in the fall) be sure to try floating emerger patterns in the afternoon. Dry damselfly patterns are also a good choice until it starts to get too cold for them.

Just got back after three days. Perhaps my idea of small is a little different, but the fish we caught weren't "small". Most were 16+, up to 20". One smaller cut at about 14, some small white(?) bass and small mouth. Two of us caught about 35 fish. The best were on dry damsels in the SW portion of the lake.

Good fishing trip. Was just reading post and was thinking about what you said. Did the better half have the 25 yard container filled up.

Actually, she, with the help of my son, did a pretty good job. They filled it about half way. They left me with the problem though. My son decided to fell a "small" hemlock, 10" base diameter. Didn't quite go the way he wanted, like 180 degrees off. It got hung up in a cedar, so I had to work out a way to get it down. Mission accomplished yesterday. I sure hope she can finish filling that container this weekend. BTW - Chopaka was great. We hit some nice fish - not bad for the first time.