this afternoon i drove by lake lenore; there were 18 vehicles at the north end, 3 of them with boat trailers.
i was surprised to see so many fishermen in that shallow north end on a weekday.

Some fly fishermen who are slowly working chirnomids are probably doing okay - but most fishermen won't begin finding consistent success until early April.

Lake Lenore stayed colder - longer - this year, so although I've had good outings in mid- March before, I'm holding off a couple weeks for my first trip.

Still - even one or two of those big cutts a day can be a worthwhile trip after a long winter!

JK

NWMALLARD, You are dead wrong about Lenore being slow to start. It is the FASTEST lake to have a bite after ice out of any in E. Wash.....because of it's shallowness and large hungry fish population I think. The date of ice out makes NO difference at all....if ice is out there will be a chironomid and bloodworm bite on the N. end.

It has been fishing fantastic, a little slow mornings except for Lenore Experts, but by afternoon everyone who knows how to dunk a chronie is getting lots of fish. Oh, and beware the wind. It's common early and will KILL the bite sure as heck.

Big John, I waz one of the ones there when you stopped by Thurs. But I didn't have the rod of your name going. The one I had brought in around 40-50 fish that afternoon.

FISHNFELLAS: way to go! i'm proud of you!

the mystique of fly fishing is alluring, but the practical matters of casting a fly and enticing a fish to bite escape me. i guess i ought to try to sell my ancient herter's glass fly rod and pfleuger medalist reel on ebay; maybe an antique collector would be interested.

john

Big John, You are stuck in a common but wrong headed RUT concerning fly fishing.
IT'S NOT ABOUT CASTING. IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT'S NOT MYSTERIOUS.

With a little practice anyone can flip an indicator or feed out a sinking line behind a raft or boat and be fly fishing without any talent casting to speak of.
Now dry fly fishing that's another matter. But that is of secondary importance in most of our lakes.

With some elemental knowledge of what trout eat during the course of a season, plus a couple dozen of the right fly patterns and you could be in business.

But why switch from bait you ask??? Well even if you didn't ask I'm gonna tell ya!! Catch and Release fishing is the thing of the future because our F&G will not be able to maintain stocking a million smallish trout to be jerked out with cheap spinning gear and eaten every year forever. And where is the quality of experience in that?? Sure it's great training for the kids and some must always be around.

But the keen SPORT fisherman wants to catch large trout in good quantity in quality setting and that demands Catch and Release........and it's best done by fly fishing.

FISHINFELLAS: ya think i could troll a fly using a level-wind ambassadeur and my trolling rod?

John, you ain't playin' Ron are you??

Hey... Bill S and I will be down at the east paved launch on the Potholes rez next weekend.

We be chasin' walleye.

hey, BILL W: there are two paved launches east of o'sullivan dam; i presume you mean the one right at the east end of the dam (the other is farther east, at road "M").

ok, now level with me: are you gonna use flies in the pursuit of walleye? (i'm betting you and B Strand will use some hardware, and maybe even WORMS!!!!!!). your subscription to fly fisherman magazine might be in jeopardy again.

i don't know if i will be fishing that weekend or not; saturday is the ducks unlimited banquet we go to every year, and friday evening is a play at the masquers theater (gotta get some culture now and then, ya know).

john

John,

you picked the correct ramp. We will be using wormy buggers and jiggy buggers.

Fishnfellas -

Let me rephrase my post - my personal experience is that I don't do too good the first couple of weeks after ice out - but that's because I'm primarily a hardware tosser.

I have also seen the vast majority of anglers don't do well right away either - and the catching get's a lot more democratic as the water warms three weeks plus after ice out or in April.

Having said that - I have always been jealous of the few anglers who do catch fish consistently no matter how cold the water is....I can now see you are one of those I've been projecting my evil thoughts at to no avail (pleeeaaaase...just a slow leak to his float tube to get him out of the water.....or, pleeeaaassee, let that fish bite my lure instead of his fly.......or....fish on? Not again!)

I'm glad you are having success early - I need to get better with a fly rod!

JK

Hmmmm, funny I saw three guys about a week ago at the north end in 37 degree water tossing oversized orange/red spinnerlike lures and hammering them bigtime. I hate to see that though. Those big siwash hooks, even if barbs bent down can get the eye socket or rip a lip out. Saw a couple lure damaged trout down there last time.

I suppose those spoons and spinners is OK when the catch and keep season comes on.....if you hook one and draw blood or poke an eye out you can always take it home to dinner.
But when it's C&R only I just wonder......why DON'T you just get in gear and learn to fly fish??