Time: 5:30PM – 6:30PM, 8:00PM – 9:00PM
Location: Point across from Whitetail CG lower loop; picnic area 1 mile from Whitetail CG.
Fish Landed: 2
Deerfield Reservoir 06/13/2015 Photo Album
After Jane and I finished dinner and cleaned up on Friday evening, we decided to take a walk. Initially we followed a path from the Whitetail Campground lower loop to the lake, and then we walked along the gravel road until we reached a day use picnic area where we scouted the shore of the reservoir. The weather was extremely calm between 8 and 9 PM, and I spotted quite a few dimples on the surface of the lake.
Happy Hour at the Campsite
After returning from Castle Creek on Saturday afternoon, Jane and I enjoyed a happy hour, and then I decided to take my fly rod down to the lake where I spotted quite a few rises the previous evening. I should add that the campground hostess warned us that the lake had trout, but it was also over populated with small rock bass, which she referred to as red eyes. The weather on Saturday was quite different from the calm that we witnessed on Friday with overcast skies and strong winds that created a small chop on the portions of the lake that were not protected.
Fish Rising By the Dead Branch
I tied a size 16 olive brown deer hair caddis to my Sage five weight and tossed out a twenty foot cast to the area where a dead branch had fallen along the edge of the impoundment. It wasn’t long before a small fish gulped the imitation, and I stripped in a tiny two inch rock bass. Apparently the campground hostess was not spinning tales to discourage me from fishing. This same scene played out over and over as I landed at least ten miniature rock bass over the next half hour. In a state of frustration I hiked across the small peninsula to test the water on the south side of the point. The wind was blowing from the north, so this protected area at least offered some smooth water. I was hoping I could distinguish the quick little rock bass rise from the slower measured gulp of a trout.
A Rainbow from Deerfield Reservoir
Finally after much casting and the release of more nuisance rock bass, I coaxed a rise from a chunky twelve inch rainbow trout that found the deer hair caddis to its liking. I was somewhat encouraged by this auspicious turn of events, however I was unable to replicate the trout interest. Perhaps a streamer would be too large for the rock bass and only of interest to the trout? I found a beadhead black woolly bugger in my fleece pocket and tied it to my line and began to make twenty foot casts and then stripped the bugger.
The change to a woolly bugger made no difference, and the voracious rock bass attacked the large black fly with as much gusto as the deer hair caddis. I promised Jane I would return for dinner by 6-6:30, so I said goodbye to the nuisance red eyes and climbed back up the path to our camp site where I helped Jane prepare shrimp stir fry.
After dinner and clean up I knew I had an hour of daylight based on Friday night’s experience, so I grabbed my gear, stashed it in the car and drove down the road to the picnic area. I parked just beyond the southern corner of the day use lot and began fishing there. Similar to my earlier session, the lake was riffled by the wind, but the air movement quickly died back, and once again fish began to smack the surface. In fact the reservoir became alive with numerous rises and splashes including fish that leaped high above the surface for a meal. Unfortunately nearly all of this activity was beyond my casting range.
Smooth Water
I fired casts out as far as I could and began to cover the water by making several steps to my left after each cast until I reached a strip of shore where a steep fifteen foot bank was behind me. In this area I managed to hook and land another twelve inch rainbow trout on the deer hair caddis, but I also caught a bunch of tiny rock bass similar to the earlier session. As darkness approached I generated two additional momentary hook ups, but I failed to maintain contact more than a brief second or two.
Eight
As the darkness closed in around me, I looked back toward the picnic area and noticed Jane above me in the parking lot. I did not want to keep her waiting, and it was growing impossible to see my fly, so I adjourned to the car. Two trout in two hours of fishing was fair, but frequently releasing midget rock bass certainly created frustration. I regretted not wearing my waders, as that would have enabled me to wade into the water ten feet or so, and this would have extended my casts deeper into the lake where I suspect the trout were rising.