Lucky #21

Tuesday, November 11, 2013 - Lake Lenice, WA

Despite a questionable weather forecast, I decided it was time to load up my kayak and head through the fog and drizzle to Lake Lenice.  As luck would have it, the rain stopped twenty minutes before I arrived, and I had the lake to myself on what ended up being a beautiful fall day.  The lake was smooth as glass for most of the day, which is unheard of for a lake that sits just off the Columbia River!

Part 1:  The Leech

My plan of attack was simple: I was going to fish my type III full sink line with leeches until I caught 10 fish, and then I was going to try either nymphing or chironomid fishing, both of which are new stillwater techniques for me.  At first, I thought I may be in trouble, as it took me thirty-five minutes to catch my first fish.  Once I found them, however, I had them!  I hooked up on my next six casts, landing four.  In the next hour I ended up catching 11 fish!  I decided to stick with the leech until fish 15, which I did.  By then the action in my leech hole had slowed, and it was time to pull over to shore, switch to my floating line, eat some lunch, and rig up for chironomid fishing.

A typical rainbow with my lucky olive leech.

 Part II:  Chironomids

Although chironomid fishing is not typically a fall technique, I wanted to get some experience before I tied flies to gear up for next spring.  Diligently I rigged up a double chironomid rig, set my indicator, and lobbed out a cast.  After three minutes I started wondering what I was doing.  Stripping leeches had been great!  Suddenly, my indicator shot down, I swung, and SNAP, no more flies!  Quickly I re-rigged, lobbed out a cast, and within a minute my indicator shot down again!  I swung, and SNAP, no more flies again, and this time my indicator was drifting free in the water.  Although I love how well they float and how easy they are to cast, Thing-a-ma-bobbers dig into the leader, weakening it, and have cost me a few fish.  I was done with them!

I headed to shore again, set up a new rig with an old school foam indicator and toothpick, and lobbed it out, expecting the same success that I'd had before. Nothing.  I moved, and nothing.  Changed the depth of my flies - nothing.  Finally, after forty minutes, I hooked into my smallest fish of the day.  I'd finally caught a fish on a chironomid!  I debated whether to switch back to the leech, but decided to stick with the chironomid, and I'm sure glad that I did!

A solid Lenice rainbow caught on a #14 gray chironomid.

The fish had hit the deeper of the two flies, so I moved my indicator up the leader 2 feet, leaving the top fly where the bottom fly had been, and the bottom fly two feet deeper.  That change, combined with finding a group of fish, made all the difference.  For the next five casts I didn't get to thirty-one-thousand before my indicator tanked, and all of these were bigger fish!  After releasing fish number 20 for the day, I lobbed out my flies again.  I counted to where I estimated my flies were completely down, and SWOOSH! Adios indicator!  This fish jumped immediately, and I knew that I was into my biggest fish of the day.  After an exciting fight I finally directed a healthy 18 inch rainbow into the net.  My photos of the fish did not turn out, but lucky fish #21 had made my day!
 

Another solid rainbow that fell vicitim to the chironomid.

Finishing off Lucky #21 on the Leech

Eventually the chironomid fishing slowed, and I had about forty-five minutes left before I needed to head home.  I switched back over to the leech, and was quickly right back into the fish.  Again, the fish that hit the leech tended to be smaller, but numerous.  Finally, it was time to leave.  As I was paddling back to the take-out I realized that I had been fishing the same leech all day.  One fly had caught 21 fish!  I had to sharpen the TMC 200R hook a handful of times (needless to say I'm NOT impressed with the hook point on the 200R), but overall the fly was still in fantastic condition!  What a great day on the lake.