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How To Fish Small, Remote Lakes For Brook Trout
(Unpublished article)
I was standing in the soft shoreline mud, casting my floating fly line over the shadowed shallows of three-acre High Lake. I dropped my dry fly over the placid surface, gave it a twitch and a ten inch brookie hit the fly with a splash. Three successive casts yielded three more jeweled brook trout. This was fishing heaven. My hard work had paid off.
You can find your own remote lake fishing paradise. It takes a little research, strong legs, and a simplified approach.
If you're like me, you want to avoid elbow to elbow fishing holes like the popular, stocked Clackamas River of northwest Oregon. You're willing to work harder for the payoff of solitude, scenery, and good fishing, where trout eagerly take a fly.
Start with research. Buy a copy of a reliable resource like Fishing In Oregon and hunt for hike-in lakes. Read the fishing review for each of your prospective lakes. If you find two or three lakes that are on the same trail, such as the Welcome lakes trio in Bull of the Woods Wilderness area, all the better. You'll increase your chances of finding such gems as High Lake.
Next, buy a National Forest map or topographic map with marked trails. Make a phone call to your friendly Forest Ranger and ask when your lake was last stocked. These fine folks will gladly give you trail conditions (including possible snow and fallen trees), and tell you how frequently your lake is visited. At the Ranger station, you'll want to pick up a free trail guide if you're hiking in a National Forest.
Generally, you'll want to hike no more than three miles one way on a day hike -- my focus here -- especially if you're hiking up steep trails. If your lake is farther in, consider backpacking. The harder your lake is to get to -- usually the better the fishing. Others are discouraged, but you aren't. High Lake was 80% uphill, with lots of uprooted fir trees to negotiate. My wife once counted over 70 trees we went over, under, and around on our way to High Lake, after a winter blow down.
Here's the equipment you'll need. Buy a good pair of ankle high hiking boots, and break them in before you hike. Buy a padded day pack that will carry a lunch, water, fishing vest, wading shorts,lightweight "aqua" shoes, camera, and other small items. Remember Thoreau's advice when you pack: "Simplify, simplify." Take only what you need; go light.
For fishing tackle, do the same. I pack an eight foot, two piece fly rod, with a #5 double taper floating fly line, and an eight to ten foot tapered leader. The tippet is two pound test. I carry just two small boxes of flies, one for dries and the other for wet flies. A pocket knife, fishing clippers, fishing license, freezer bag creel, and not much more should round out your vest. You'll appreciate the unencumbered feeling as you clamber over boulders, scrape through brush thickets, and wade in the shallows.
I also take a lightweight spinning reel and rod along to reach the middle of the lake, or when it's too windy for false casting a fly line. If you're not adept with a fly rod, the spinning outfit is a good alternative to traditional fly fishing. Just attach a clear torpedo bubble at the end of your four pound test line; then attach a 30-inch, two-pound test leader. Tie on the fly, dry or wet, and you're in business.
Brook trout are not hard to catch. They're a bit like housecats. Dangle something in front of them, make it move -- and they'll attack it. If you see rises on the lake, creep to within casting distance and toss your fly close by. If there's no hit, twitch the fly. If there's still no action, slowly retrieve the fly (it's okay if the dry goes under) and make it start and stop, as if it's struggling. Curious brookies may follow the bug all the way back to you.
If there are no rises on the lake, use a wet fly or nymph and explore the areas close to shore, especially where there is cover, such as overhanging bushes or submerged logs and rocks. Cast, let the fly sink for 5 to 10 seconds, then make the fly move and struggle. Go slow, then faster. Pretend your fly is an insect. Make it struggle all the way back to shore.
Don't be picky about fly patterns, because brookies aren't. You don't even have to match the hatch. Once I tried unsuccessfully to match a brown mayfly hatch the fish were taking off the surface. After they ignored three or four imitations, I finally tried a weird orange dry fly I'd tied just for fun. The brookies attacked it.
Standbys I use are Adams, Black Gnat, Ant, Spider, March Brown, Woolly Worm, and Hare's Ear Nymph, from sizes 10 to 14.
It takes a lot of hiking and exploring to find a few really good fishing lakes, but the hard work is worth it. Using these basic methods of finding lakes where the fish are, and fishing in a simplified way, you should have similar success. As Robert Frost said, "I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference."
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