Tuesday, August 26, 2008

It's Beach Time

OBSESSED WITH RIVERS ?
Go To The Beach
There's Fish There
.. It's beach time. If you need a bit of a fishing fix and your favorite river is hot enough to poach the fish you'd like to catch; fish a lake. There are some nice cold water fisheries that are fishing very well:
* Grebe Lake,
* Hebgen Lake,
* Quake Lake.
.. There are gulpers and shore dogs in all of these lakes and, by golly, they will eat your fly with exuberance. The tactics are rudimentary and the rewards are legion.
.. Bugs of all sorts inhabit the shallows near the beach and the trout come close to eat them. Flies hatch and surface in the shallows. Terrestrials drown in the shallows. Mice swim in the shallows.
.. Ooze and goo breeds in the shallows where light provides the energy for photosynthesis and growth.
.. The beach is adjacent to the shallows. This is a classic example of the edge effect in biological succession, (see Wikipedia.) The diversity is amazing -- exploit it! Go to the beach.
.. Take your foam collection with you to the beach. Float your ants and beetles, and hoppers, and moths, and millers. Drown your favorite Gob-O Worms, or San Juan Worm, or a Feather Duster, or even a Prince with a bead head.
.. Fish at the edge of the shadows and cast parallel to the shore -- wade if you like, (P.S. Wade and Cliff are going nuts as we speak.)
.. Fly fishing in lakes is rewarding, productive and less crowded than the rivers, right now. We wonder at the obsession with the rivers.