View Full Version : Big Bear Lake 7-22
etaggart
07-22-2009, 01:45 PM
Teated the wife and me to a morning kayak rental from www.bigbearpaddling.com (http://www.bigbearpaddling.com). Jory was great as always and we launched from Boulder Bay. Once again ... beautiful conditions but no bites. I was fly fishing on the back while my wife happily paddled all around the west end of the lake for 4 hours! The sun came and went with the clouds and the wind was pretty mild in the late morning. Great day for a paddle - not a great morning for me catching fish :(
Did see a variety of other people catching a trout here or there. Mainly looked like trollers who said they were down deep. I think a couple of guys drifting might have picked up a couple.
I'll see if I can sneak out late this afternoon/evening for a final attempt at trout near the dam. Then I gotta get back to reality.
ANY tips on catching trout on the fly this time of year would be greatly appreciated. I'm working it down deep, in the middle and up high. Fast and slow, steady and jerky retrieves. Green and purple wooly buggers, traditional streamer fly with red body, and my nephew's favorite a matuka with red body. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just the un-luck of the draw!
Cheers!
ET
Teated the wife and me to a morning kayak rental from www.bigbearpaddling.com (http://www.bigbearpaddling.com). Jory was great as always and we launched from Boulder Bay. Once again ... beautiful conditions but no bites. I was fly fishing on the back while my wife happily paddled all around the west end of the lake for 4 hours! The sun came and went with the clouds and the wind was pretty mild in the late morning. Great day for a paddle - not a great morning for me catching fish :(
Did see a variety of other people catching a trout here or there. Mainly looked like trollers who said they were down deep. I think a couple of guys drifting might have picked up a couple.
I'll see if I can sneak out late this afternoon/evening for a final attempt at trout near the dam. Then I gotta get back to reality.
ANY tips on catching trout on the fly this time of year would be greatly appreciated. I'm working it down deep, in the middle and up high. Fast and slow, steady and jerky retrieves. Green and purple wooly buggers, traditional streamer fly with red body, and my nephew's favorite a matuka with red body. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just the un-luck of the draw!
Cheers!
ET
Got no advise as a lot of the fly's you mentioned are normally real good up there. Black is usually my go to color up there but this year they seem to want olive instead. I use a full sink type 4 but sounds like your going deep also. One guy was really killing them using a Zugbug pattern, didn't have that in my box but he was on fire a couple weeks ago in the evening.
Kimura6985
07-22-2009, 03:05 PM
Hey!! I have had luck @ the observatory, I'm using leadcore 3 to 4 colors down, using chartuse colors, regarding the fishing i've been there 6 times this year all for a couple of days(read my post) the fishing has been the worst I've seen, i have a therory, I think it has to due with the construction, on the south side by the dam you will see signs set up telling you days that they are blasting and using dynamite, think that is spooking the fish plus the bridge construction, best luck night fishing, late evening or early morning, keep plugging, I notice people fishing from the shore have had most of the luck, Cheers!
MarineMichael
07-22-2009, 04:27 PM
It's tough up there right now for sure. I was up there Friday and Saturday with my brother. We fished from PM till AM Friday night without much more than a nibble. We were fishing power and nitro bait in various colors as well as Mac and anchovies for the kitties. Nothing that night.
The next morning we made a quick stop in town to buy a couple cartons of night crawlers and ask for advise on where they were catching them. We were told that they weren't bighting all that well, but if we were going to get anything it would be on the north side near the dam. We launched the inflatable for a while with no luck and then tried from shore where a couple other guys caught a few, still nothing.
Later that night we went back and again launched the inflatable and anchored @ 100 yards offshore in 30-40 feet of water. I finally managed to get one that was maybe a tad longer than 9", definitely not the 2-3 pounders I'd seen 3 other guys pull in that day. The rest of the night we got maybe a few nibbles on worms but never enough to set the hook.
There are a ton of carp out there. The damn things were jumping and boiling all around us both nights. If I'd had any clue what to use for bait I'd have tried that just so I could catch something.
Hey!! I have had luck @ the observatory, I'm using leadcore 3 to 4 colors down, using chartuse colors, regarding the fishing i've been there 6 times this year all for a couple of days(read my post) the fishing has been the worst I've seen, i have a therory, I think it has to due with the construction, on the south side by the dam you will see signs set up telling you days that they are blasting and using dynamite, think that is spooking the fish plus the bridge construction, best luck night fishing, late evening or early morning, keep plugging, I notice people fishing from the shore have had most of the luck, Cheers!
I like your theory on the blasting going on. They tend to move towards the dam as water warms and then maybe they hit that construction crap and get skittish. Also I noticed that the aeroator past the bouy line is not on, I used to use a Thomas Bouyant and cast near that thing and kill um, maybe the oxygen levels are off. Hell I don't know but somethings off.
Kimura6985
07-23-2009, 06:31 AM
I like your theory on the blasting going on. They tend to move towards the dam as water warms and then maybe they hit that construction crap and get skittish. Also I noticed that the aeroator past the bouy line is not on, I used to use a Thomas Bouyant and cast near that thing and kill um, maybe the oxygen levels are off. Hell I don't know but somethings off.
actually you are dead on regarding the aeroator I don't think I've seen it on this year either, Cheers!:Beer Toast: