Where to start on a new lake

[deepbuzzer]

Here is the question on probably everyones mind who is new to lake fly fishing..
Where do you start to fish on a new lake, and how do you determine wht to start off with,,

Thank you

[fishaholictaz]

Here is the question on probably everyones mind who is new to lake fly fishing..
Where do you start to fish on a new lake, and how do you determine wht to start off with,,

Thank you

How ever you fish this comes up and it can be overwhelming on big waters:compress: What I do when I go to a new body of water is look for points and coves. Another thing to look for is travel or funnel areas. The biggest thing to do is relate the new lake to an other lake you fish and look for similarities in the productive area of lake/lakes u fished and try to find those kind of areas on the new lake. And there is always watching for fish rising or bugs hatching. I always like to fish the down wind side of the lake where the bait gets blown to. But just fish from your gut your instincts will guide you if you are in tune

Tight lines,
TAz

[Lotech Joe]

I went to a Denny Rickards seminar when I was at the Great Western Sportfishing show here in Spokane. He starts the day at or about sunrise by positioning himself about 30-40 feet offshore, and casting toward shore. He said he seldom fishes deeper that 6 inches. He uses flourocarbon leader because it virtually disappears underwater and a fly with pulsating action like a soft hackle or wooly bugger. Start stripping (fast or slow) as soon as the fly hits the water. As the day gets older, he moves out from shore and fishes a little deeper.
Brian Chan fishes altogether differently, but he uses chironomids. He starts at the bottom of the lake and fishes vertically with very short twitch like retrieves until he gets a strike.
These are two different methods used by two different, extremely successful fishermen.

[Uncle Wes]

Check your PM and e-mail

[chironomid_guy]

I fish the same as Brain Chan with Chironny's (go figure). I find a hydrographic map of the lake will pin point some of the shoal areas, flats and shallows. These shoals warm sooner in the spring and the inverts get active. Trout que on these invert active sites and the adjacent areas. Pre dusk I will definately fish the area adjacent to a shoal to catch the larger lurking lunkers. The larger fish will tend to be in the deeper water near dark (they know its safer from predation after the sun goes down). If your still fishing, try and anchor just off the drop off edge (with the wind at your back)in 20-30ft of depth. You can troll this edge as well if you so choose! While fishing, stay attentive to any hatches, use a throat pump to change up your fly colors. Chironnys can change color in minutes, if the fishing starts to slow down change your color (as indicated by the throat pump). You want to use the pump to sample the last few inverts the fish ate, not the food he ate two hours ago that are in the bottom of his stomach. Too many guys sample too deep in the fishes stomach to be effective (and it can damage/kill the fish). Hope this helps!

Cheers Les

[Rooscooter]

Here are a few things I do the first time to a new lake.

1. go to Washingtonlakes.com to see if there what info is available for the given lake : )
2. Look for a topo map of the lake to find the shelfs, holes etc. This is a good site for most of the Eastern Washington Lakes. If I can't find them here I go to the USGS site and look there.
3. I look for the water supply to the lake: eg. surface water (stream or river) or spring fed. This will give you clues to where the fish might be (think north end of Lake Lenore) and what food sources are present. This is also dependent on the time of the year and altitude of the lake.
4. look for evidence of insects to determine what may be available to the fish. Altitude, and location will have something to do with this as well.
5. Water temperature and depth of thermocline layer. For me this is the most important factor.
6. Determine all of the fish species in the lake (game and non game). This can help to determine where to fish to find your target species and know what type of "baitfish" may be available.

Once I gather this information I can use it based on the time of the year and overall characteristics of the species in the crosshairs and start a strategy based on these facts.

I don't subscribe to any technique exclusively (eg. chironomids or buggers: stationary or trolling etc.) so I usually carry both sinking and floating rigs with a full complement of flies.

I keep a detailed journal on each body of water I fish in a computer data base. I find that as I get older I cannot remember things as well as I did in my earlier days : )

Using this approach I have been either very successful going to new lakes or I have gotten completely skunked! However, the getting skunked is happening less frequently!

Tight Lines!