Success! The "Fish Gods" of the lake smiled upon us today and brought up the first Lake Trout of the season. What an exciting experience to fly fish for "Lakers" around shallow rocky shoals,... or "reefs" as the locals call them. For most of the season, these creatures of the deep lurk and feed at incredible depths in these northern lakes. However, in September these fish migrate from the depths and dwell in the shallows to feed vigorously before the fall spawn and the long winter freeze.
Along the shoreline are great expanses of granite slab that extend out into the water and form these reefs. Our target areas for Lake Trout is very specific on the reefs - find "bouldery" (basketball sized) rock structure that is adjacent to deep water. Here, the fish congregate and feed on minnows and smelt that live amongst this enriron. This is the reason why fishing baitfish patterns in lighter colors proved to be effective. The top producer today was Blanton's Whistler in red/white and punch colors (2/0 sizing).
To add to this wonderful day, Bill and Jim had an incredible session of "Piking" today - they landed more than 50 Pike today! They fished Umpqua's Gen-X Bunny fly in red/white (3/0). These fish are super aggressive and, therefore, want very robust flies. Their most successful environs to fish these Pike was submerged "cabbage" with about 3 - 4 feet of water above them. This time of the season, most of the Pike are seeking warmer lairs to hold and feed. The submerged vegetation provides this insulation and heat absorbtion from the midday sun. We are fishing these areas with Rio's new Outbound "Short" with clear intermediate belly. This fly line has been essential to maintain the depth contol of our flies throughout the retrieve over the top of the cabbage.Finally, today was an absolutely gorgeous day to be on the water in remote central Canada... look at the picture below and you can see why this lake is called "Gods Lake".
