Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Bottom to Top Charters
My Bro-Inlaw took me to Lone Lake on Whidbey Island yesterday for some fly fishing lessons at this Fly only lake.
We caught the 7am ferry and were at the front of the line, we took the boat and dang! $40 to get across.. wow!!
we got to the lake 8am sharp and there were risers all over the lake! every where I looked.. so we hurried up and got the boat in the water and started off trolling flies in leech patterns (bro said this was a great go to fly for trolling the lake) the risers and jumpers slowed down with in no time as the sun was warming up fast and the fish were dropping down to the bottom to seek cooler water.. we trolled some more and I got one good strike but no hook set..bummer..
We ended up anchoring up at the deepest part of the lake and while my bro rigged up a casting fly I casted the leech a couple times, let it drop to the bottom and jigged a little on my retrieve.. and whatya know.. BAM! my line was running.. 1st hookup on fly gear ever for me!! this battle was awesome! when I finally got it close enough to see it, it was easy 20"+, I pooped my pants, it ran some more and then broke me off.. ugh!!!!! that was sure to be my best trout ever.. we did manage some video of the battle to share later :)
So after trying nymphs on a strike indicator (cool fly guy name for bobber) hanging it close to bottom with no luck, we decided to go back to trolling and cover more lake.. So I asked for my leech pattern with spider legs back on my setup, I added a split shot on to make sure it would get deep where the fish were. we trolled for an hour covering a bunch of the lake with no hits, when when we got back in the middle deep sections, bam! i got another hook up, this time not so big, it took some sweet runs and was fun on the 5/6 fly rod setup though.. we got it to the boat, snapped a pic quickly and let'r go and started our troll again.. 5 minutes later bam! I had another one on, another good sized rainbow, this sucker gave me a few runs and then calmed down a little, I got it closer to the boat saw it was possibly 18" or more, it saw me as I smiled and showed it my snaggle tooth and it booked!!!! ziiiiinnnnnngg.. gone! ugh!!!! (got some more video of the battle at least) so we troilled for another 30 minutes with no signs of fish and called it a day for this lake..
over all the lake is slow fishing right now because of the heat, I think right now fishing right at daylight with a dry fly would work well.. the rest of the day the fish are hunckered down deep as they can get, which isn't deep in Lone Lake at 15' max!
NOTE: the wdfw regs say "no internal combustion engines" for Lone Lake, this is not true, half the home owners on the lake had ski boats parked at there docks, and 3 different boats showed up while we were there running there internal combustion motors. if i would have know i would have brought mine! i like burning gas!!! :)
pics:
1, 1st ever fish on a fly setup!!
2. getting my boat setup for river slaying in a few weeks.. fish fear me and my boat!