Les Korcala and I fished Bobby yesterday, opting to wheel our pontoon boats in via the trail to the east end, there already being several cars and motor homes at the main trailhead. That proved to be a one-way decision as the east end trail drops down a 30 or 40 foot bluff right before the put-in, meaning we'd have one hell of a time lugging our boats back up again. We decided to row west and take out at the main put-in on the way out.
Conditions seemed favorable: forecast air temps in the mid-50s; partially cloudy skies but winds SSW to 20mph. A falling barometer and a full moon a couple days earlier were possible negatives. The water temp 3 feet below the surface was 52�.
I took a lovely 18" brown on my 5th cast using a #12 brown soft hackle, thus christening in my new Winston Ibis 4wt. Les took a couple RBs on dries in the next hour or so: a fat 22" male that squirted milk all over his net; and a skinny hen that left a teaspoon or so of golden eggs on his stripping apron (fish must REALLY like Les ;-) He took one more small RB (13" or so) before lunch.
The small bay adjacent to the inlet was literally packed with fish, sipping very small emergers but otherwise content to ignore our offerings. Although we both forgot our midge boxes at home, we tried nearly every other chironomid, small dry or film pattern we had. I broke off cleanly when one brute took a #18 cinnamon Quigley Cripple (my only one unfortunately) but that was it. We had several other refusals, but on the whole, most of the day was frustrating seeing so many fish and being unable to entice them.
About 2:30 we reluctantly decided to brave the wind and row down to the west end. I hooked a weird 18" RB on a bloodworm but it didn't fight at all, making me think it was dead. However, the fly was in it's mouth and it was respirating, although barely. When I released it, it sank belly up, perhaps the victim of an earlier angler encounter.
There were several other anglers on the lake but none of the ones we spoke with had much success.
We moved over into Nunnally and fished the small bay just east of the channel connecting it to Bobby about 5pm. I landed another RB (on the same brown soft hackle) and LDR'd a spunky jumper within 10 minutes before everything shut down about 6pm.
Our net count for 8-1/2 hours on the water was three fish released each with about the same number of LDRs or refusals - a very slow day.
Kent Lufkin
