Good Today was pretty special as it started out with a Learn to Fly
Fish trip with my guest Chen and his son Koby. We started on Burney Creek and then moved to Baum Lake where Koby caught
his first trout! We then drove up to
Manzanita Lake where they were camping, and Chen got to cast to a lot of rising
fish throughout the afternoon. After a
few missed grabs, Chen landed a couple of nice fish before he decided to call
it a day. We managed to avoid the man-eating
river otters but did see a pack of four.  Koby and Chen on Burney Creek  Epic view of Mt. Lassen from Manzanita Lake  Chen with his first Manzanita Lake rainbow |
Good I took my client John from Davis up to Manzanita Lake today. Manzanita Lake is a great option for any multi-day trip in northern California. At 6000ft elevation, it's a great place to get out of the valley heat. It's loaded with browns and there are always rising fish available. Today was no exception. The morning fishing was very slow, but we started getting hook ups on nymphs under indicators around noon. By 2pm there was a really good callibaetis hatch and spinner fall going on. I was suprised to see so many this early in the year. We saw fish rising to midges, callibaetis spinners and duns, and terrestrials today. Our best luck was with ant patterns. We hooked fish on nymphs under indicators, nymphs under dry flies, and dries today. The wind was pretty bad, but we were able to find little corners where the fish were rising regularly.We had the lake pretty much to ourselves today. In another month it will be crowded with kayakers and a lot more fishermen. The fish seem to get used to the traffic, though. Manzanita is one of my favorite mid-summer destinations.  Mt Lassen in the background  John with his first fish of the day  Fat brownie  Our best fish of the day  Close up of a Manzanita Lake Brown trout |
Good I took clients Jon & Rick to Manzanita Lake today. What a great place to spend a hot day! Manzanita Lake is at 6000ft elevation and stays pretty cool even on a hot summer day. We fished a lot of flies and techniques today. Manzanita Lake fish are smart - they're all wild and they see a lot of flies. A lot of the grabs we got today were lightning-fast! We had fun sight-fishing but it wasn't highly productive. We did better in the deeper water. There is a good callibaetis hatch right now from noon until 3pm. We also saw a lot of damsels and some flying termites.  Manzanita Lake brown |
Good Katie and I met up with Dax today at Manzanita Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. This is a great fishery because it combines wild rainbows and browns with some of the best scenery in northern California. It is also one of the best places in our area to sight-fish to cruising trout. The fish here are very smart. It's a fun and very rewarding game to cast to visible feeding fish and watch them refuse, ignore, and occasionally eat your fly. We also saw bald eagles, ospreys, and baby ducklings, and I caught the first two fish ever in Dax's new raft. It was a great afternoon of fishing! |