Time: 10:15AM – 2:30PM

Location: The lake at Pine Valley Ranch Park

Pine Valley Ranch Lake 06/07/2023 Photo Album

Today, June 7 was all about improving my stillwater fly fishing game. I enjoyed a fun day on Tuesday on the South Platte River, so I was anxious to experiment with a day of lake fishing that did not involve too long of a drive. On June 1 I detoured to Pine Lake at Pine Valley Ranch after a frustrating morning at the Davis Ponds, and after a bit of success I was eager to return. The weather forecast called for a high probability of thunderstorms from 2PM on, so I arrived at Pine Lake a bit earlier than normal. Quite a few cars occupied the spacious parking lot, and I would soon learn that many fishermen were present.

The temperature was in the mid-sixties, so I wore only my fishing shirt over a short sleeved high tech undershirt, and I was comfortable during the morning and early afternoon. I chose my newest fly rod, my Sage R8 four weight, and I was quite pleased with its action and responsiveness for the longer casting required for lake fishing. I began my quest for stocker rainbows by heading to the narrow channel at the west end of the lake, and as I strolled down the dirt path, I passed a woman with a spinning rod, who seemed to be vacating my target area. Once I arrived at the spot, where the lake narrowed into the channel, I encountered another man who occupied the mid-section of the shallow slough. He commented that there were a lot of visible fish, and he was tossing a thin mint (woolly bugger style fly) with a spinning rod and casting bubble. As I looked on, he landed a fish or two, and I asked him if I could fish below him. He approved my request, and I took up a position at the mouth of the channel and tied a size 16 deer hair caddis adult to my line.

Morning Hunting Area

As Good As It Gets

For the next 1.5 hours I fished from my perch and made casts toward the other angler, who was soon joined by the woman that I passed on my hike to the lake. I landed three small stocker rainbows, and then my fly was consistently ignored, so I changed tactics. I replaced the caddis dry fly with a size 18 black parachute ant, and the terrestrial accounted for two more fish. The woman of the pair was chucking a bubble as well, but the landings were not as soft as the man’s, so I felt that my repeated casts and her plops were putting the fish down. I circled around the fishing pair and asked if I could make some casts from the end of the narrow channel back toward them, and they replied that my intentions were not a problem for them.

Aimed to Freedom

I curled around the end of the water-filled ditch and followed a worn path for around ten feet on the opposite bank. A film of pollen washed into the extreme western end area, so I positioned myself to fish the area beyond the pollen scum. Fish were rising sporadically, and I returned my offerings to a size 18 tan body deer hair caddis, and this fly produced a fish or two. After an encouraging start, the fish began to ignore the caddis, so I extended some tippet off the bend and tied on a tiny size 24 griffith’s gnat. I connected temporarily with the gnat, and then I lengthened my casts to prospect new water and managed to land two more rainbows on the caddis.

Showing Off

At this point it was 11:45AM, and the frequency of rises slowed to a very sporadic pace. I decided to vacate the channel and moved to the south shore of Pine Lake. Most of the anglers at the lake were clustered on the earthen dam breast or in the southeast corner, so I had most of the southern shoreline to myself. I dropped down a short path to a small worn beach, where a dead, fallen tree angled into the lake. I switched the caddis and griffith’s gnat for a size 8 tan pool toy hopper trailing a size 14 yellow stimulator. I shot some casts to the area, where the log submerged in the lake, and I was shocked when a feisty rainbow trout crushed the hopper. I released number nine and fired another cast five feet beyond the one that yielded a success, and after a long wait, another rainbow grabbed the stimulator. These two fish elevated my fish count to ten, and I celebrated with a quick lunch. In both cases I allowed the two flies to sit in excess of a minute, before a trout was enticed to strike. This method of fishing was taxing my patience.

Area Beyond the Tip of the Log Produced

Surprise Hopper Eater

After lunch I endured an abundant quantity of refusals to both the hopper and the stimulator, so I paused to assess my options. I concluded that I needed to down size, so I swapped the pool toy for a peacock hippie stomper and replaced the stimulator with an olive-brown size 16 deer hair caddis. This choice proved to be on the money, and the fish count zoomed from ten to twenty-five over the next two hours. initially I landed a few fish that snatched the caddis, while it sat motionless, but then I experimented with a twitching retrieve, and this resulted in some brief hook ups. Eventually I settled on a cycle of allowing the flies to rest motionless for thirty seconds followed by quick short strips, and quite often a fish would grab the caddis on one of the strips. The leading hippie stomper tended to dive briefly and then pop back up, and a few fish went for the stomper, but in most cases I believe the larger foam indicator attracted attention, and the rainbows swiped the  trailing caddis. In a few cases the grab occurred immediately on the first short strip. It was almost as if the fish was watching the flies, and then the twitch caused them to eat for fear of their food source escaping. I also observed that the pace of action seemed to accelerate when the wind kicked up a bit to create a small riffle. I theorized that the surface disturbance interfered with the trout’s vision, and movement of the flies caught their attention.

Looking at the Popular Southeast Corner

Caddis Fan

Of course, I did not catch a trout on every cast, but I estimate that I averaged one landed fish for every three casts, once I settled on the cast, wait, twitch and strip routine. Lake fishing seems to be a game of trial and error to a greater degree than stream fishing. I’ve settled on a warm weather sequence of single dry, double dry, downsizing, dry/dropper, streamers and indicator nymphs. It is harder to view the fish’s reaction to these different methods, so systematic experimentation seems to be the name of the game. Of course, I have been dealing with mostly stockers, so the approach may deviate, when I visit wild trout in high country lakes, once the ice clears.

Fish Landed: 25