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Fly Fishing Newsletter
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Happy Holidays to everyone. Hope the winter months are treating everyone well. It's been a chilly one so far with some nice days mixed in--sounds like the fishing in November :)))
Henry's Lake
The end of the season on Henry's was wild. The middle of October was pretty nice but then really headed rotten as we approached the end of October. November was even wilder. It was stormy, windy, snowed and the wind just made a mess of the lake. The wind blew hard and from every direction which really hammered every area of the lake. On some days it almost looked like mud it was so churned up. Then if that wasn't enough the lake would freeze and then unthaw then freeze and unthaw. I'm not sure how many times the lake froze but it was too numerous to count. There were some good days through November but I didn't get any of them at all. Just so happened for me every time I went it was cold, blizzard snow and with winds blowing 30 mph. If you could catch a moment in between storms, wind, snow and the lake to settle for a little bit from all the wind action, the fishing was great with good numbers and some really nice fish. We did make it up a few times where the weather was marginal and the lake still tore up because of the wind but still managed to catch some really nice fish. I think in all the time spent on the lake when we fished we had the sun for about an hour total. Long story made simple and short. You had to catch it just right. If you did, like I said it was great.
The best places were still the normal places in the fall. Staley Springs, Hatchery and the two boat dock areas. Pintail Point showed some fish but was hit and miss with the fish moving in and out. When a person was able to fish it was usually from shore due to windy conditions.
We didn't see any significant ice until the last week of November. This made it easy for the meat hunters to park over the fish staging to spawn. However, the impact was minimal due to only a week of good ice and the word didn't get out. If the lake freezes at the end of October this would give a full month of ice fishing over staging spawners. This could have very easily happen this year with the water temperatures the way they were. If this happens and the word gets out and you put significant numbers of meat hunters over them I believe it will affect the fishery in a negative way. Mind you I'm not against ice fishing just against doing it over the spawners or where fish have congregated. This will be an ongoing debate over the next few years in my opinion. As most of you can possible guess Bill and I are opposed to the extended season. Damon of the F&G assures me that it won't make any significant dents in the fish population. The locals are going to try hard to put some pressure on the F&G for extending the season past November. In talking with Damon the state at this time is not looking to extend the season further than November 30. This will be in line with the normal fishing closures of most area water both Stillwater and Rivers. I'm still worried and concerned about its impact with high numbers of ice fishermen.
The flies that worked this fall on Henry's were the brown leech patterns for the most part. The other flies that seemed to work were the Electric Black, BH Electric Black and the Halloween. When the water was really muddy we had to resort to some new flies that were flashy so the fish could find the flies.
Sheridan Lake
Sheridan Lake did well early in the year thru early August. The lake gave a few people trouble at times during the year. However, for the most part people caught some nice fish and had some good numbers. The Damsel hatch was probably the highlight for me this year. It was just flat fun! Come late August it died off just like Henrys did but only several weeks later. The fish seemed to vanish. At 70 degree water temperature they are not going to feed on much no matter what you throw at them. Into the fall Henrys did so well we really never got back over to Sheridan much as we did last year. The call was to go to Henrys and so that's where we had the trips. When we did fish Sheridan, we did catch some nice fish. Mike and I did take some exploratory trips on Sheridan Creek and it's looking really good. As the restoration project on the upper section takes hold we should see this fishery just get better and better.
The flies that continued to work were the Pumpkin, The Black Pearl, Electric Black, and the California. The fish had moved off the large weed bed off the boat dock and down into the deeper water by the Dam.
Season Ender
Overall, the 2006 fishing season was awesome and had some great trips. It was just plain fun and the people we fished with made it a super year. The first part of the year, June thru July it was awesome. We caught good numbers and lots of really nice fish along with some pigs. Most of the fish caught were the 3 year old class of fish. When they hit their prime come next summer they will be in that 5 to 10 lb range depending on the species. With the water being in the 90% going into winter the fish should winter well. If this is the case the fish numbers should be really good so look for people to catch their fair share of nice fish this summer in 2007.
There were times that the catching slowed way down due to the higher than normal temperatures in Mid July thru August. August was really tough. Sheridan picked up the slack during this time with a longer damsel fly hatch that I know a lot of you enjoyed. As the water temps continued to raise the fishing decreased proportionally. Sheridan followed Henrys a couple of weeks later in the drop in activity when the water temperatures made it to 70 degrees. During this period on Henrys we only had a window of about an hour were the fish would bite in the early am and later pm. If you were not out there early you most likely did not catch any fish. As September rolled in the water temps decreased and the fish catching increased. The fish really got into the fall feeding routine. September was a really nice month to be on the lake. We caught some good numbers and with some really big ones showing their faces not to mention some really nice weather to do it all in. As October came the weather hit with a vengeance the water temps went way down. We hovered right at 34 to 38 degrees during most of October and into November. The fishing was great “if “you could get out on the lake or if the lake wasn't beat up by the wind. The wind thru this time really beat up the lake. Even if you had a nice day most often the water looked more like milk chocolate rather than water. The fish staging to spawn came in early and in good numbers during this period of time with the exception of the Hatchery area. This year for some reason the fish didn't come in good numbers here but people did catch fish and a lot of nice big Brookies along the north shore. We caught several exceptional Brookies this year off the Hatchery area. Another oddity that we saw this year was fish off Pintail Point. In recent years the fish have not been there. Why they showed up this year no one really knows we only have theories at this point.
Overall this year was a good year to catch some exceptional Brookies and large Hybrids. It seems as though Henrys is getting back to the Henrys of Old with lots of big fish being caught and in good numbers. I don't think there were any weeks this year that big fish were not caught. This next year is shaping up to be just like it or maybe better with the 3 year old class of fish looking solid with a good showing in the 4 year old class to carry over. Sheridan will have the usual Kamloops as always. It will have a little different wrinkle coming up this next year. The Cutthroats that were put into the lake will be catchable size this year. With Sheridan having some top water action with Midges, Caddis, Grasshoppers and Callibaetis the Cutt's should figure this out in a hurry and get into the action this upcoming year. The Brookies that were planted won't play a part for another two years.
Lynn Scott
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