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[Spawn Sack]

Overall we had a great time! Rolled into Roche right around 2pm, which is when we could start using our boat. Check in wasn't suppoused to be until 4, but our cabin was ready when we arrived so we unpacked the vehicle and put our food (and beer!) in the fridge first before heading out. We were on the lake by about 3pm.

We talked to a few guys on the dock and they reported that the fishing had been pretty slow the last few days. GREAT! We headed out determined to prove them wrong.

The weather was beautiful and the lake was calm most of the time. Typically we would motor it to a nice looking spot, then row around super slow trolling various flies. We caught about 6 fish each over 2 halfs days (check in and check out day) and the one full day in the middle. Not the greatest #s!

The most productive flies were #12-#14 pumkin heads, BMWs (Brian's Marabou Wiggler) in maroon, and ruby eyed blood leeches. We switched flies a LOT and these worked best for us. In tried trolling a few chronomids and had no luck, lol!!

Also the last day my g/f was trolling a small green lucky bug and caught 3 fish on it. After not hooking anything for about 3 hours I tied on a small silver with a red head trout killer (tiny spoon) and caught two fish on it in about 30 min. Other guys we talked to were getting fed up with flies and bought a tin of worms, haha!

Overall we really liked Roche Lake and would go back for sure. I'd like to go by myself sometime so I can anchor up and work on my indicator fishing. Still good times slow trolling with the misses and dog in the boat

[milo]

Not in the classic sense of the word.
But what you CAN do is to fish a chironomid on a fast sinking line while free drifting over a dropoff and letting the line go down deep.
It helps if there is little to no wind and the fly is really close to the bottom. Give the line an occasional twitch
The takes can be savage, so hold on to your rod or keep it in the holder. My biggest trout to date (25", 7#) was caught using this method.

[Spawn Sack]

Well, just our luck, the fishing had cooled off quite a bit when we got there. Heard a lot of grumblings from fly fisherman on the dock, in the lodge, etc.

I tried trolling a few chronomids s-u-p-e-r slow over some shoals, but nothing. In fact they weren't biting much at all for the 3 days were were there.

After trying MANY different flies, what we found worked best was larger flies that were (IMO) likely smashed not so much because they looked like food, but more because there were flashy and annoying. A #8-#10 ruby eyed leach worked well, as did other leech patterns that were flashy and annoying. My g/f caught a few on a pumkin head I tied up that had olive UV sparkle dub in the body.

Overall we loved Roche and would go back again and again. In total we caught about 12 fish in the 3 days. Released all as we were staying in the cabins which included luch + dinner each day. The biggest fish we heard being pulled out was 4lbs and was caught on a wedding band with a juicy worm on the hook.

[RalphH]

It's not so much about trolling chironomids but controlling the drift of the boat to get just enough movement to keep the line tight to the fly. It doesn't work well when there's much wind. Works great with a sinking line but the angle on the line should be 45 degrees or greater.