After an awesome trip to this lake in May, we decided to go up for the Sept long weekend. Arriving Friday night at about 8 the resort was empty compared to May long. I bet it wasn't even half full. Once we got out of the car we couldn't believe the wind! The lady checking us in said the wind had only recently started up and the weather had been great. Well trying to set up tents in this wind was not the easiest thing to do that's for sure. We chose some sites on the ridge in some trees which helped a bit, but still made for a hectic set up.
Saturday morning we were up on the lake early. Fog was cruising across the lake but that was the only thing moving on the water. No bugs, no fish surfacing and nothing splashing. We decided to head the east end of the lake where we had success before. We came across a small area of the water where there seemed to be a small hatch. But were only able to land one fish. Without notice the fish just stopped feeding on what was there so we rigged up with type 6 sinking line and began trolling. Had a few fish hit and spit our flies before the wind picked up at about 1pm. The wind made it very tough to troll and keep the boat on coarse so we headed in. Final at about 6 the wind subsided so we went out until dark with only one fish to the boat. That night we sat around the camp fire hoping for a better Sunday.....
We headed out about 7am Sunday and saw the swallows on the west end of the lake picking bugs off the surface which means it's chironomid time!!! Rigging up with our strike indicators and salmon lake special chironomids we anchored in about 15' of water. Within minutes of the first line in the water we had fish on. Fishing remained fast and furious with fish averaging 2.5-3lbs! Then the Mother Nature tried to slow us down with a torrential storm with heavy rain and hail pounding down on us. But the fish kept coming until about 12:30pm. When things quieted down we took a break until the weather cleared up at about 3pm. Talking to one ranch worker he told us this was the first real hatch on the lake in weeks. We headed out back to the same area and the fishing was just as intense as the morning. Three times we had double headers on the boat! Strike indicators didn't stay still long after casting out. After losing count of how many fish we had to the boat and the wind picking up we went back to camp. One of the best days fishing I've ever had on a lake. The biggest fish was just shy of 21". This is the type of day that makes up for those days when you get skunked!!
Side note: brought one of the fish back for dinner on the fire and after cleaing it out could not believe the amount of aquatic snails in its stomach. Nothing but snails!!
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Topic: Salmon Lake (Douglas Lake Ranch), August 30th - September 1st 2014 (Read 2137 times)