Hey Zenman,if you and the guys posting on this thread are serious about a winter trout trip, you should try Rocky Ford in December before the weather gets a little cold.
Snowing like hell today....just perfect,brings em to the surface. Jim Snow has the right fly,Ronnies Special Scud. Didn't cost $25 either. Rainbow to around #6,for proficient flyfishers only. Fish Chronies and Scuds only in 16 to 20 under a yarn indicator 6" to 1'deep.Sight cast to spooky trout in shallow slowflowing water.
Me, I'll stay by the fire and tie some for next spring.

Snails, man I hate them buggers Tom. Hardest thing to imitate I know of. Try Kaufmanns catalogue p.110. Not a very good pattern if you ask me.
Try Rainys float foam in various colors rolled up and impaled on a large dry fly hook. Trouble is the dang things come in so many different color variations. Try to match the naturals with panatone pens on white float foam. Many people think a gob of yellow powerbait simulates a snail!
Who cares?
There is only one way to correctly fish the chronomid. In front of feeding fish,hanging from a strike indicator,at the correct depth. There are days the fish like it moving,but these are seldom.
If they do just twitch it an inch or so every so often, or you can put on a small splitshot and drag the fly ultraslow under the indicator on non fly only lakes.
Depth is critical as is the correct area in the lake. Generally in spring it's somewhere shoreline oriented in 3' to 12' water. Use a fishnbuddy to find the fish or go where the swallows are feeding.
Sometimes on rare occasions you will need to fish Chronomid emergers or adults, but those occasions are rare also.

Thanks fishnfella, I appreciate the advice. What about using an anchor for chironomids? I have heard that some people use them to keep from moving. I picked up some snail imitations at Kauffman's. I agree on the look....don't look like snails. I wonder if there are any patterns available on the web to tie on my own?

Zen, I hope PITB doesen't stand for a Jr. Member of PITA! I like to eat animals and couldn't stand to be around even a Jr. member of the "cruelty crowd".
BTW, according to your theory of "he who spends the most $$ on gear gets the bigest/most fish", I will win honors for sure next spring. I gots a new Sage SPL 489-3 4wt.,3oz. lightweight rod for Christmas. It feels more like a bamboo rod than anything I ever fished. Shopping now for a new Hightech,wide arbor reel to go with it.
I can't top your $10 fly though. Oh well, I think I can find one or two trout who are big and still have an apetite for the lowly beaded chronomid.

Tom how about TROUT JR. I was once a Jr. Now I'm the Master. It all started years ago on a bait barge, Well anyway I think Jr would be good for you. And FF I'm not a member of PITA. Or what ever it is.

Bobbersdown: An anchor is manditory for fishing chronies on days when the wind is up. Even calm days you kinda need to stay facing your bobber with relatively straight line and that's hard to do bobbing around in a floattube. Pontoon boats or prams best for chronie fishing, but you can do it floattubing. You gotta stay at relatively same depth of lake. I anchor up and fish a full circle around my set and out 10-15' from my rod tip. If the set goes flat on me I move to a new location nearby. You'll notice after 3-5 large fish thrashing around on your line, your set kinda goes flat for a while. Best Move!

Once you get to know each lake you tend to head back to the same chronie hotspots over and over.

If at a new lake look for swallows working or other chronie fishermen, and if no activity, drag a leech or something around until you find shucks of evidence of chronie hatching. Large flats w.mud bottom at 9-15' depths are usually good chronie water. A Bathometric map will help you suspect where the chronies are on new water. Steeply sloping bottoms are often poor and hard to keep your fly 2' off the bottom where it usually should be.
If no action and waters cold go out to 20-25' with a slip bobber and fish bloodworms a foot off the bottom.

How's this one? Recently taken to float fishing for Steelhead. That is 'strike indicator' fishing of a more beefy nature.

Still looking forward to hooking up with you guys and heading out to Nunnaly or Chopaka.

Nunally? Not untill March but the secret lake will be ready in mid feb.

Yeah and if I knew where it was I would head out there to do a little C&R with ya. Since I don't know where it is and no one has been forthcoming....I'll just think on it a little more. In the mean time I am working on getting my first steelhead.

Bobberdown, float fishing for Steelies is deadly in the right water. They kill em in Canada doing that. One popular "bait" under the bobber is the PINK 6" bass worm. Thread the leader through the worm to within an inch of the bottom. Then let your #1 or #2 hook hang loose at the bottom. Deadly. Various jigs with sandshrimp are good too. They used to get them w/that on the Methow till NMFS closed it down permanently.
Another great February trout spot is O'sullivan Reservoir at the mouth of the wasteaways or East end of Lind Coulee. Big three year old hogs from Mar Dons 160,000 fish yearly planting stage there in Feb.to try to spawn in the wasteaways.

Can't divulge the location/Name of Secret lake due to blood oath and besides that Zen will hunt me down and kill me if I do.Much too small for much pressure, but the Resevoir has lots of Feb. trout and scads of room.

Thanks FishinfellaS. I think that I may check that action out. Having fun with the river fishing. Just bought myself a 10'6" float rod. Changing over to monofilament line as it will have less resistance on the water and see how my fishing will improve. Next on the list is a 7 to 9 wt fly rod.

FishinfellaS,

You've shared more of your secret lakes with me than I have with you. I wouldn't hunt you down for "fish and tellin". I'd be more worried about you settin' your dogs out after me for letting it slip on some of the lakes you've shared with me.

Trout Apprentice is a different story. He only fishes named lakes like Lenice and Quail and doesn't search for ones on his own. I might have to take that back as he did find our secret lake by his lonesome. Later this year I will "test" him by giving him the tip on K***** Lake and seeing if he can pass the test by navigating the "secret route".

Or I could slip the word to him that the "body part lake" posted under the secret lake reports put out a 28 incher over by the waterfall the middle of last March.

Body parts??? Hmmm... knee.. elbow... lung... kidney...wonder which one it is?

signed,

pot stirrer

Hey P.S. (aka Zen) I don't know if I have the heart to keep up with you on all of this tricky stuff. I did want to know if you have ever fished for whitefish in some of the local rivers. Can't remember if you posted that you had or not.

See you on the lake.

Zen, I dont fish lenice, quail was along time ago.
And the body part lake i found out yesterday from a unknown source. We will have our day when all of us (fly people) can get toghter and have a little fish off. I hope you dont get hunted down before our lesson next week.

Bobbersdown,

You should try chronies and indicators sometime. It's like being a kid again and fishing for bluegills the way that little bobber..er.. indicator goes down.

Yeah, I fished some for whitefish locally. That was when I'd get bored steelheading and switch to whitefish. Eventually I just went for whities.

Back in the early 80's the Bellevue Kaufman's used to run seep lake fishing trips to your "secret lake". That was their best lake. I preferred the Hamptons and Sage lakes back then as I used to do much better there.

Not sure what's up this weekend as I may be headed out of town, but if I'm local I may try to find a spot I'd seen years before. A Soos creek bridge had lots of whities underneath. Don't know if I'd try worms... or nymphs under indicators. It was shallow enough there where nymphs and wading from shore would work. I think the bridge wasn't actually on Soos creek, but over the Green. I'd have to see if a road called soos creek crossed the green.

Gentlemen. I can't get out right now so I guess I have to talk fishing. I went out this mornong and bought some flies for Steelheading. I am going to try them next week. As I can't get out till then.I'm not really equiped for them but I going to try with what I have. Biggest rod I have is a 9' Lamiglas 6wt. It's going to have to work. Because I'm to cheap to buy anything else. I caught big fish on my 5wt so a 6wt can't be that bad. I caught a 21" long steelhead on my 7'6" 4wt. I guess I'd better shut up for now. And get back to baby sitting. Jim S.

Zen - thanks for the tip. I may head out on the Green and give it a go. The area you mentioned seems to be, as I recall, the area where the silvers were being caught a couple of months ago. Yeah, should be wadeable if the water is at normal levels. Would you use a single egg pattern? I have sinking line but should I add some weight?

Jim - good luck on the steelie with the 6wt. I have a 5wt as my only fly rod and did not want to chance it. I aked about catching one on the other board and one reply came back - fish on...bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz snap!

made me laugh so hard at work everyone was looking.

Zen - that body part lake, does it get brookstock plant? Did it just last year get some Triploids?

I don't think I'd try an egg pattern for whitefish. I think I'd use a regular pattern like a bead head hare's ear or prince nymph. Something smallish as in size 12 or 14 and brown, black or peacock with some sparkle.

I'd want it down and drifting along the bottom so I wouldn't hesitate to use split shot.

If you know where my secret... er.. forgotten spot is, why don't you give me a call and if I'm not hunting this weekend and we can mosey down there together. I'd have to poke around on the roads until I found this spot again.

I caught a fair amount of whitefish over in Yellowstone Park this summer but those fish were after emergers on the surface.

Don't think they planted triploids in your lake. What I think is some of them are major carryovers. A lake a mile or so to the south of your lake was putting out nice fish in March last year in the mid teens to mid 20's range. It seemed to be loaded with fish.

Zen....You're back!!! I thought maybe you took a shower in the camper and suffocated in that grabber of a plastic shower curtain.
Seriously, I know you wouldn't really hunt me down for "fishin and tellin." It was just a gut reaction cause when younger I used to kiss and tell once in a while and got in deep dodo every time.

If Troutmaster can navigate and haul ass into the K lake and still cast a fly he's both a woodsman and a Troutmaster. Tell him the location and let him try it. Everyone should experience that place once in a lifetime.

I hear he's taking tying lessons from you. Probably doesen't want to have to buy any of those $20 flies you have to keep up.

Speaking of flies, I'm tying my superscud now with Canadian seal rather than scud dubbing and it looks great. Also devised a way to fish it hanging HORIZONTAL under the bobb...er, strike indicator.
Use Partridge YK2B turned up eye scud hooks for the tie, attach your leader with a standard steelhead snell using only a few wraps, and use the "riffle hitch" to get your tippet to come out of the top of the fly head rather than out the hook eye. That suspends the scud horizontal.
Can hardly wait to see if this is gonna work on some of my Canadian "Scud Lakes".
Later, almost time for the Rose Bowl.

Ron,

That's the first time I heard of using a riffle hitch on nymphs. That tip might be even better than trails to 10 "secret lakes".

Let's test your tip out in a couple of months.

You got a fly to imitate those stinkin' little #32 pin dot daphnia the fish eat in early March??