Mountain Lake Trout Fishing

[Andrew R]

Hey Guys,

I'm headed up to the Wind River Range in Wyoming in just over two weeks for a trip with NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). I've been reading up as much as I can about the fishing up there but information isn't quite as prevalent as I hoped. The one thing that keeps coming up is that the majority of fishing takes place in mountain lakes at high elevations. It's a style of fishing I'm completely unfamiliar with, being more comfortable throwing streamers at largemouth bass like the newb that I am.

Any advice on how to fish these lakes would be incredibly appreciated as I'd hate to spend two weeks in the mountains and come back emptyhanded.

Andrew

[Casey Peltier]

Lake fishing is different, and I have learned two things:
Lake fish cruise around looking for lunch instead of waiting for the current to deliver it like in a river. You need to 1) find them and 2) figure out where they're going
We used nymphs on long leaders with indicators and tried to cast them to where the fish were going. I have no idea if a streamer would work or not!

Be sure to report back. :-)

Casey

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Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2016 08:54:53 -0700
From: andrewre...@gmail.com
To: tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com
Subject: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Mountain Lake Trout Fishing

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[Bob Richey]

A couple of weeks ago, there was an Orvis podcast on stillwater fishing.  You might check it out.

[Yambag Nelson]

I have never fished lakes in that area but I have done a lot of pond fishing for Brook trout in the Adirondacks and am guessing that some of what works there may apply. I do the majority of my fishing with clear, intermediate line and focus on shoreline structure. Long (15 foot) leaders are generally key. For most of my fishing I use a smallish black leech pattern with a copper John off the back. Red is a favorite as it imitates midges you frequently find in still waters. Some guys up there fish very small midge pupa a foot or two off.of the bottom with a strike indicator. To me it is a very unappealing way to fish but they do very well. They learned the technique from fishing out west so I am assuming it would work where you are.

One big tip is to pay attention to how the wind is blowing and fish corners or coves where food gets blown into. That is the first thing I look for when fishing Stillwater. Also look for any inlets where fish will stack up looking for food. I fished a small Alpine lake in Colorado a couple years ago and caught fish after fish where a small feader came in. Pond fish have all day to inspect you flie so that bit of current can help. Those fish were not sophisticated and took your basic dries like Adams or griffift gnats.

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

[Bob Richey]

Here's the link to that podcast, it's the June 1 one.

http://www.orvis.com/s/fly-fishing-guide-podcasts/4047

On Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 11:54:53 AM UTC-4, Andrew R wrote:

[John Smith]

I spent a couple years in grad school at the University of Wyoming and those high alpine lakes were my favorite places to fish. Never fished the wind river range but fished the Bighorns and Snowy Mountain ranges. Back then I didn't have sophisticated equipment or a large variety of flies. I used a 4/5 weight 71/2 foot St. Croix rod with a generic floating line. A longer rod would have made casting easier. Anyway, if the lake is stocked with brookies those will be relatively easy to catch. Just look for the rises. Golden trout are also stocked in the higher lakes as are cutthroat and those can be a bit more finicky. For the goldens, I had best success with a size 14-16 tellico nymph or other scud pattern fished in the surface film.  Basically, dry fly nymph fishing if there is such a thing.If they turned away from those, I fished black midges in #20-22. Long light leaders. If you find an inflow to the lake, those areas are usually good spots to try first. Also, the quality of the lakes varies greatly. I got good intel while out there from the Wyoming Game and Fish guys. I'd love to go back some day. Good luck.

On Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 11:54:53 AM UTC-4, Andrew R wrote:

[Lane Thurgood]

I love this topic and if you want more info than you'll ever want, hit me up offline (thur...@yahoo.com).  I'm afraid this post is too long....  Lots of other good comments already.  I have not fished the Wind Rivers (on the bucket list) but I make an annual trip to Utah's Uinta Mountains and they are a lot alike.  If I had one day left to fish before I die, it would be in a high-altitude Uinta Mountain lake.  The one I currently have at the top of my list has goldens but if you had asked me more than a year ago, it would have been one with grayling.  Both are over 10,000 feet up.

My backpacking rod is a 5-piece 8'3" 4-weight.  In those Western mountains, you are frequently dealing with wind, so think heavier for line rather than lighter.  My favorite line for that rod and trip is a slightly oversized 4-weight line.  A 5-weight rod/line may be even better.  And yes, I agree with John, think longer rod.  And yes, absolutely look at the inlets and outlets.  For the vast majority of those likes, you will only want a floating line, but I took a sink-tip last year for prospecting a deep dropoff and it worked as planned.

My high mountain box includes, among others, #14 lime trudes and renegades, #16/18 Griffiths gnats, #14/16 cinnamon/black ants, a range of beadhead pheasant tails, zebra midges and brassies and some #16/18 WD-40s.  In some lakes, you have to prospect deeper water (particularly mid-day).  In some, you are really staking out a nice spot and waiting for cruisers to come by, yes, even at mid-day.  Each lake and fishery has its own rhythm.  Bonneville cutthroat and grayling in particular seem to love to cruise around.  Sight casting to a cruising Bonnie or grayling is pure poetry.  Grayling have smaller mouths, so a #16 is as large as you will generally want (but I have caught them on #10s when I didn't expect them to be there).  If everything is playing on top, I will fish a solitary dry, but a few years ago I was completely hooked on dropping an olive WD-40 off the bend of a lime trude on about 18 inches of tippet.  Soon, everyone in my party used the same combo.

Although I have generally found grayling to prefer dries, when I was in Utah last month, I found a lake filled with 8- or 9-inch grayling and a light chop on the lake.  A few grayling came up and took a whack at a dry, but I only hooked one.  Switched to a beadhead under an indicator and let the wind chop provide the action and found plenty of players.  And 6-feet from shore (right at a dropoff) was far more productive than any further out.  I do think grayling and cutties prefer the shoreline.

Two years ago, I hiked to a lake at 11,000 feet filled with oversize brook trout that were smashing blue damselflies on top.  All my damselflies were 2,000 miles away in Virginia in my smallmouth box but I found willing players on the biggest #10 black gnat wet flies I had with me.  When I went back last year to that same lake, I had #10 blue foam damselfly dries and #8 olive damselfly nymphs and cracked that lake's code.  You can bet I will never hike to a high mountain lake without them again.

You will likely be in an area with various lakes within short hikes.  Oftentimes, switching to a different lake is the difference.

Something else you may not otherwise think of:  altitude sickness.  Although I grew up in Utah, I am now a sea-level Virginian and I find that I encounter the effects at 10,000 feet and above.  With me, it starts with a headache and progresses to vomiting.  The last couple of years, I have done much better hiking up to fish, but hiking down below 10,000 feet to sleep.  And drink lots.  More than you think you need to.  Water and Gatorade--but minimize caffeine.  Last year, I at least made it deeper into the afternoon and even evening before I had to descend due to the effects of altitude.  I understand that altitude affects everyone differently, but for me, the more north I get from 40, the more acute my symptoms have become.  And know that you will sunburn more easily.

This may be more (and the wrong kind of) info than you wanted, but there are a few thoughts.

[namfos]

Maybe a little dated; Dalton told me about this book here on the forum and sure enough it has something about the Wind River Range: http://bit.ly/29wPA7V

Mark

On Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 11:54:53 AM UTC-4, Andrew R wrote:

[Rob Shane]

While in Montana a few weeks ago for work, we fished up at Georgetown lake for stocked bows and brookies. It took us most the week to figure out but a double nymph scud + damsel 5-6 feet under an indicator OR a chubby with a scud/damsel 3-5 feet below seemed to work really well. Only a few hits on the foam patterns but they were a lot more fun than staring at a bobber. 

Adult Damsels had just started to fly around and we were told we that we were a few weeks early for that season-so maybe that times up perfectly with your trip? When all else wasn't working, griffiths gnats, ants, and renegades would sometimes induce a strike when cast 15-20 feet ahead of a cruising fish and twitched ever so slightly across the top--as long as that fish didn't change direction and never see your fly.

Cam't say I know of any certain similarities between the two lakes, and GTOWN lake is about 5600 ft in elevation (and in an entirely different state) so may be a totally different ball game. Hope some of this is useful though. I wouldn't shy away from a quick phone call to one of the fly shops out there either.