I am over visiting my family this weekend and had a chance to fish Aeneas Lake this
morning.
The fishing was sporadic. The first hour and half yielded only one 14 inch fish on a
Werner Shrimp. Rather disappointing for Aeneas. The next two hours saw multiple
strikes on a size 2 black leach but no hook ups. Thinking the tail was too long, I
cut some off only to have the interest disappear too. I switched to black wooly
bugger and got one about 16 inches.
Just as I was getting ready to leave, I put the big leach back on and was suddenly
into fish again over by the water inlet. Landed another 16 incher and then just a
minute after putting the line back out, I landed a nice 20-22 incher. Now that is
what I came for:0)!
A few minutes later I hooked up on another large fish but the hook pulled before I
could him in. This was another 20 inch fish. I had two more fish on briefly but
happened to be in a middle of turn in the boat and coudln't the line tight in time so
they spit the fly on me.
In 3 hours of fishing, I landed 4, lost 3 and had about 10 more strikes. Not bad for
late August and the water feeling more like a bathtub then a lake. The fish were
healthy and hardy though and didn't appear stressed by the short battles.
For those of you who like the facts, I was fishing a SA unisink III line out to my
backing on 4X tippet about 6 feet long and trolling at a medium speed. All the fish
except one came on the troll and the other hit the fly and missed but came back to the
fly as I was stripping. I was the only person on the lake so can't compare by success
to how others were doing.
On a few related notes, the fires from the Virginia Lake complex are amazing. They
look like they are heading towards containment but they really did some damage. The
area out by Omake Lake is a mess.
This part of the State really has been hit by drought. I have never seen the
Conconully Res. and Upper Lake as low as they are right now. Several smaller lakes
have either dried up or are near drying up including Sugarloaf and Hess Lake. Aeneas
and Fish are a bit low but fine. Blue Lake in the Sinalahekin is low but hasn't
dropped since May. I hope to fish it in the morning.
Mike W.
Spangle, WA
