Fuller Lake

[IslandNewb]

Was out on Fuller Lake today. Stunning day on the lake. Flat calm or small ripple throughout the day. One other guy in a boat. I picked up a small one early and the other fellow got one shortly after he arrived. Thats all I saw hooked for the day. There were a half dozen people fishing from shore but I dont think they were doing any better as there seemed to be a pretty steady rotation. Later in the day there were a few (very few) black midges coming off sporadically but I didnt have any luck fishing chroni"s. There was also a fair amount of surface action before dark. It looked like they were feeding just subsurface but they might have just been up in the water column. I was not able to connect with anything. Water temp was 6 degrees C (43-44F). Beautiful day regardless. Would have been better to hook a few more fish but I am not going to complain.

[nebc]

Try an emerger chironomid in sizes 18 to 24.

Have a look here:

http://www.dakotaflyangler.blogspot.com/

[IslandNewb]

Thanks again. I wonder if I could substitute the CDC with antron and add a floatant or do you think the color of the wing is important?

[nebc]

Well I would not do that, as the CDC has properties that are far more desirable. If you wanted, you might consider cutting some of the hair from along side of the toe of a rabbit foot to use in place of the CDC. I often use that for emerger patterns for its floatation capacity but it does not in my mind work as well for suspended midge like the shuttlecock patterns. That being said, you may not need the floatation and if fishing the emerging midge in or near the surface film antron just may work. I have had success with little more than white antron gills on a midge pattern just under the surface film...but not the pattern we were talking about here...the options and ties form a virtualy endless series of options that you have to sort out based on observations and a bit of background into on entomology.

Good luck with it, and enjoy the fun.

[Tangler]

I have found that in situations like that the fish around here respond well to a small chironomid fished a few feet under a very small indicator. Lob it at the bulging fish and wait for it to vanish. If you find the fish vanish next time try to guess in which direction they are heading and cast it at least 10 ft in front of them.
T.

[IslandNewb]

Was at Fuller again on Sunday with the kids. The lake was half frozen over so it was a little crowded for my liking. Six boats sort of tracking around on the open part. The water opened up a bit in the afternoon but most of the ice stayed. Water temp was 44F (6ish C) and it was pretty nice out starting at about -1/-2 in the morning and warming to 4-5 in the afternoon. Another great day on the water.

Incidentally Brannen Lake is about 1/2-2/3 frozen over today..

Cheers

[adrock1981]

Went out today to Fuller, tons of people out there. Saw one boat catch and land one of the big ugly stocked steelhead (over 6lbs by the looks of it) which they decided to hurl back into the lake for some reason, instead of releasing it gently . My Dad managed one beautiful 4lb chromer, we hooked around 20 fish all together, most in the 12-15" range, a couple 16" and one 18" as well. All in all, a very successful few hours out there, and the weather was perfect as well! Finally!

[Coastrider]

Heard alot about the rotten steelhead they stock the lake with, must be spawned out

[adrock1981]

Well I wouldn't go as far as saying they are rotten... at least not the ones we have seen anyways. The are mostly just dark, their fins are all rounded from being in the tanks, they can definitely be in rough looking shape for a while when they get put in. We have caught a few of them to 6lbs in the fall months as well and they were in nicer shape.

The only thing we have noticed with them is when you hook one they don't fight like a regular rainbow or even triploid rainbow. They don't really run much line, or jump, they usually just sound to the bottom and headshake for a short time and then can pretty much just be reeled in. Often they are a lot larger than you think they are when you first hook them. We have hooked some rainbows in there in the 2-4lb range that tear line and don't stop running, the steelhead just fight very sluggish from our experience anyways. Still neat to hook into once in a while though IMO.

[Tangler]

I was out on a small lake near Fuller on Sunday.
Lots of smaller fish kept us entertained (no big ones this week).
We were also entertained by two guys who managed to capsize their tinnie (V-hull)...