Closed for the season

The last weekend here, so if you like the Lavas, get out there. It will be one of the first lakes we hit in the spring, so touch base next year.

Lava is still producing some decent catches, but the snows are coming and the days are shortening. Most of the fish have come on subsurface offerings, with Calibaetis nymphs, red lighting bugs and black A.P. nymphs working the best. There has been a few ants about, so it's been a good idea to carry a few of these too. This is a cool lake and with the recent snow in the mountains, the scenery is hard to beat.

Lava has slowed a bit from the furious fishing we saw earlier in the year. Most of our focus has now switched to East, but there are still calibeatis hatching and you just might hit an epic ant hatch here as well. When nothing is showing on the surface, try a damsel nymph or small olive bugger and troll or strip them along on sinking lines.

Wednesday was interesting. We started out slow stripping nymphs & midges waiting for the baetis hatch. Well, despite the bright sun, the mayflies came off big time . . . and very few fish were eating them. After just a couple of grabs on dries, it was time to change both tactics and locations. Indicators and midges with droppers in deeper water with about 9' of flourocarbon paid off with a bite every other cast much of the afternoon. What a great way for two really nice clients to finish up their Father-Son day day on the water! Thank you Trout Gods . . . . Jeff

Robert and David wanted to spend the last day of their trip fishing the evening at Little Lava. They'd had an epic night on better than average 'bows 3 years ago and were hoping to re-capture that moment. Alas, Little Lava hasn't fished like that the last 2 years and it was not to be. Fishing from 4:30 to 9:00, we tried everything from stripping nymphs to wind-drifting buggers to fishing dries. Heck, we even put out an indicator rod just to see. Despite marking lots of fish in 14' of water on a couple of rocky points, we saw fewer than 10 rises total and nothing worked. Having guessed wrong, they chalked it up to an afternoon in a beautiful spot uninterrupted by trout. If only the bite had been as good as the mosquito hatch . . . Jeff, who will be fishing elsewhere.

Jim and Michelle booked a 2nd trip 10 days ago and we got lucky with a short-but-sweet calebaetis hatch. They caught most of their fish on zebra midges and soft hackles, but Jim landed a pair really nice, 19" Lava 'bows, his first ever trout on dry flies, on one of my favorites, a very realistic extended body baetis.

I fished 4 days last week with Portland dry fly nuts Robert and his 88 year old Dad, David. It was an important and perhaps their last big trip together, and frankly, I was a little concerned about only fishing dries. Ah, but not to worry . . . the Trout Gods smiled and there was a sporadic baetis hatch every day that made for pretty consistent fishing. Of course, it helped the #s that they weren't above stripping zebra midges with soft hackle droppers on dry lines -- they drew the line at indicators -- when there were no fish rising, but I'm sure they'll both deny having gone to the dark side. All kidding aside, it was very nice to be a part of their "last buffalo hunt", and I am really glad that in addition to pretty good fishing, we spent a couple of mornings watching 2 very nice mule deer on the shore, and that we had an osprey work within 100' of us for nearly 10 minutes.

Since I hadn't actually fished myself in a week, I took a "busman's holiday" with my fishing partner BC on Wednesday. Early, the indicator fishing was zippo-zilch-nada and there was no hatch. Uh-oh! Fortunately, a very few calebaetis popped late morning, we went dry and, at one point, landed three 16-19 inches on 3 casts sticking and moving along the bank. Then it went quiet, so we moved, anchored up, and almost immediately got into a school of fat and healthy 14 to 17s on large (size 12) red Copper Johns. The bite lasted nearly an hour until the wind came up and blew us off station. We never found the fish again, but it had already been another great, "best buddies"s day on the water.

Right now, the Lava 'bows are in great shape and in the air and pulling hard as soon as they're hooked. The forecast is for warm weather coming up, so now is the time to get up close and personal with them before it gets hot and they go deep. Tight lines - Jeff