HTC 4: The Eagle Lake Rainbow

Update for Saturday 8.16.11

Okay Eagle Lake! I get it! You don't have trout, you have adult Steelhead! But more on that later. I made it into the Christie Campground at Eagle Lake at about noon (okay HTC researchers -- The Eagle Lake Rainbow is found at Eagle Lake!). I had pretty good information on what to do from a Great Website devoted to information about fishing Eagle Lake. I drove in to the market in Spalding and had a great conversation with the man working the morning shift. After a couple of good jokes (or attempts at such), he told me that the fish are deep. He also stated that all the fly fishermen left two weeks ago and the "die hards" left a week ago. He suggested that I might get lucky for a fish at the southern end of the lake near the Christie picnic area. After a couple more jokes he told me where he was going to be fishing at 5:00 in the morning, from a boat, and gave me directions to drive to the shore. Well, thankfully I have a Subaru because I was 4-wheeling a dirt road for 3 miles but discovered the end of the road that left several hundred yards of walking to get to the spot. I really did not want to get up a 4:00 and drive off road, but it sounded like it was going to be my only chance to catch an Eagle Lake Rainbow.

I set up camp, cleaned out and organized my car, lost my keys for 45 minutes (NOT Fun), and prepared my gear to fish this evening as a warm up. I put my 25 year old Cortland Crown reel, filled with 20+ year old 4-wt floating line, on my two year old Ross Essence, 8.5 foot, 4 piece, 3 / 4 wt rod. Using the information from the website above I put on a size 10 golden brown mohair leech. Actually, the color was blended by Mike at the Eureka Fly Shop and he calls the flies made from his blends G.O.A.T. flies (Greatest Of All Time). The colors are blended for the lagoons and other fishing opportunities on the north coast, but they work elsewhere as I found out today.

Before the finale, I have to state that I need to find a fishing buddy, male or female, older or younger, to make these adventures more fun and successful. I took all my gear down to the edge of the lake (boots, waders, filled vest, long handled net, rod) and got prepared to fish. I started preparing at 5:30 and finally got my waders and boots on at 6:00. It turns out that my old waders fit me like spandex, and I was unable to put on and tie my boots with the combination of form fitting waders and an inflexible back --- well, not so much of the back as the stomach colliding with the quads to create an immovable upper body. You might think I need a fishing buddy to tie my shoes --- NO -- it took a while (although I was about to ask the kids down to the shore to tie my shoes for $5, but then realized that I only had a twenty). I eventually got my boots on and waded out about 30 feet, only to find out that my waders had a hole in them. But I kept going. I cast my line about 35 feet, with the 8 feet of the pole and the 8 feet of leader, my fly was landing about 80 feet from shore, hopefully near a drop off to a deeper area. I was hoping that some fish would move from deep water into the shallows to feed on the evening hatch. I cast and stripped the line back for an hour. Not a fish showed on the surface and I had no hits. A hatch of mayflies was coming off, as well as some midges. I remembered that the recommendation from the web site was to float a small green midge under an indicator when a hatch was on. I then realized that with all the gear I brought down the hill I forgot to bring a pair of line cutters. I was stuck using the one fly that was on the end of my line. So, I need a buddy so I will have what he or she has forgotten while he or she will have what I forgot.

So, what does Eagle Lake have similar to fishing for Steelhead? Well, all I could do is cast out as far as I could and strip my one fly back, changing the timing and length of pull to figure out what triggered these fish -- just like fishing for Steelhead --- cast after cast after cast after cast. But, there was a magical moment when I discovered that if I gently cast my line out, pick it up and cast it again for greater length, I could reach the same distance achieved by muscling and rushing the cast, and without the line tangles. It was a spiritual moment. I gently cast the line with as much effort as bouncing a ping pong ball across a table and the line flew. IT FLEW. I don't think I remember ever being so relaxed casting a line, and with such distance. I knew I would be ready for the fish at 5:00 the following morning.

Then it happened at 7:00 PM. My fly got caught in the weeds, again, for the 50th time, but I kept retrieving the line through the weeds. Weeds? No, it was a gentle tug of a fish, followed by a much larger tug, followed by a reel screaming run towards the middle of the lake. The fish surfaced and I was amazed at the distance between the tail and the head of the fish. Two more reel screaming runs and I got the fish into my net. I did not horse the fish because I wanted to document it and not lose it. After taking a picture of the fish I kept it in the water and resuscitated it and watched it swim strongly away.

I quit fishing at 8:00, happy to be able to sleep in tomorrow morning and able to head off towards the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. I will be back to Eagle Lake. The experience was more than rewarding. It was like the other experiences on this trip -- it was cleansing.