A Little Something Different During Run-Off, June 12, 2013
June 12th, 2013
It’s that time of year again when run-off’s grip begins to squeeze the options for river fishing here in the high country. Fortunately, there are plenty of still water fisheries out there to keep a fly angler entertained. While the action for chunky Rainbows has been steady at some of our very fertile reservoirs, this is also the best time of year to chase Pike on the fly. Pike will spawn early in the spring and then move into the shallow water for the warmer temperatures. As the lakes are on the rise at the moment with run-off pouring into them, some of these shallow areas are once again holding water and Pike.
On Tuesday, we headed out to take a look in the shallows and see if we could even spot any laid up Northerns catching some rays. To our surprise, it didn’t take long at all to find a fish and then another and another. Not only did we spot at least a dozen in 2 hours, we got about half to eat a fly. This is the part of the story where you should learn from our mistakes. Being as we weren’t that convinced that we would even see any Pike, let alone get them to eat, we were not exactly well prepared. No wire leader and no pliers. That being the case, we landed three little “hammer handles” and broke off two slightly larger fish, about 24″+/-. We did also spot two rather large fish laid up in about 2-3 feet of water. Neither of them were too concerned about our presence, as they hung out and let us throw multiple casts at, around, over them until both just slowly moved out to the choppy water where we lost sight of them.
If you go, check out Spinney, Eleven Mile and Williams Fork, all have been producing for Pike on the fly. Stagecoach Reservoir is also know for a good Pike population, we just haven’t talked with anyone that has fished for Pike there this year. Take a mix of generic bait fish patterns in various colors, we landed fish on chartreuse/white, green/yellow and red/yellow. (we have also heard of guys throwing Tarpon Bunnies at em) A 7 or 8 weight rod will give you a little bit of extra power and control with the cast in the wind with large flies. And by all means take along a leader/tippet material that is heavier than 0 x. That can either be wire or something hard, like heavy Maxima.