Fishing blog: Tales of angling adventures from around the world
Welcome to our fish blog! Here you can read more sage advice from anglers around the world. This is the place for news, tips and non-fiction fish tales from mountain lakes to distant beaches. Please feel free to comment and join in on the conversations and share some fish tales of your own!
We finally made time for a day in the woods on Tuesday June 26, and hiked up to the Loch. We tried to make an early start so that we could drive all the way to Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park and find a parking place. The road closes to private cars at 9AM due to road construction. Wanting to fish until almost dark, we didn’t want to have to rely on making the last shuttle run. However, we found ourselves in a long line of cars at 8AM and crossed our fingers that the parking lot at Bear Lake wouldn’t be full. Luck was with us and the parking lot filled up right after we found a spot.
The hike up to the Loch was beautiful with clear skies and a slightly cool breeze. It was pleasant to be away from the smoky hot air for the day! Before reaching the lake the wind really started to blow hard and at the lake it was blowing right down the lake making it hard to cast and control the fly. We decided to try crossing the major inlet on the west end of the lake and fish the shallow southern shore where we would be out of the wind. It surprised us to see many giant spruce trees toppled over, roots and all, throughout the forest. We had heard that there was a major wind storm this last winter that closed such trails as the one to Black Lake, with downed timber. A recent downed tree did help in crossing the inlet though!
The fishing was great! We were able to sight fish shore cruising trout and Les and I each caught and released about 25-30 fish. We lost track! We did pull out our spinning rods with the fly and bubble rig and caught a few further from shore, but the majority of fish were caught with the fly rods. These beautiful hybrid cutthroat trout were hitting on small black ants, beetles and a few were caught on Elk Hair Caddis and Stillwater Caddis.
The Loch has always been our favorite lake to fish in Rocky Mountain National Park and this day rewarded us again with beautiful scenery and a plentiful catch of the most gorgeous hybrid trout!
An interesting discussion can usually be started by introducing the differing views held by anglers regarding the importance of pattern when considering the relative importance of proper presentation.
Myself, being limited in time to tie every possible pattern and carry them in various sizes and color variations, I tend to emphasize presentation over pattern. I have observed wild rainbow trout in Mills Lake up in RMNP feasting on bits of bagel some German tourists were feeding them. This kind of makes “match the hatch” a problematic consideration at best.
While there is no question that fish become accustomed to feeding on a particular size insect during a particular hatch event, rarely will one pass up the large dose of nutrition that a grasshopper fly offers.
A lot of lethargic trout can be encouraged to strike with a little motion of the fly when the dead drift offering passes by unnoticed. Perhaps this is a reaction strike with nutrition second to aggression and the desire to kill. Any way you see it, it amounts to a presentation situation.
I have often thought that a skilled presentation can entice even a reluctant trout to strike a fly that may not “match the hatch”. So, my advice is save yourself the time of tying or the financial investment buying one of every pattern in the book or fly shop, and concentrate on a few “go to” flies instead, and focus more on presentation than pattern. Most of the pattern advocates I know spend a lot more time trying different flies and tying on tippet than they do fishing which is why, using only a couple of patterns, I can usually out fish them. I guess this is the basic concept behind the “one fly” tournaments.
Les A. Beery
“Les and Kimball, Happy New Year! What a great book! Well organized with great illustrations. Good information. Anyone could benefit from this book. Hope to fish with you again soon.” –Rick Grassett
Our camping rig; It’s great for weekend trips to the Keys. Follow us on Facebook to learn more about kayak and bridge fishing in the Florida Keys.
Learn more in Angler’s Guide to Shore Fishing Southwest Florida
Snook fishing south of the Albee Road Bridge on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) from Angler’s Guide to Shore Fishing South West Florida.
