Chopaka is getting too popular I think. The first day I drove up there was Saturday and I couldn't believe how many people were on the lake. Looked like a bowl of Fruit Loops with all the colored tubes on the water. Must have been at least a hundred fishing craft out there, plus many more pulled up here and there along shore. There were at least three large groups (fly fishing clubs) camped on the lake. I like to work dries along the shoreline, but I practically had to get in line with all the others. I did work along one 300 yard stretch of bank that was empty and managed to spot a few nice fish (16-18 inches) that I fooled on a Calabaetis emerger/cripple. After a couple of hours the wind came up and I decided that was enough for that day.

Went back on Monday and the crowds had thinned considerably. I saw that many people were doing very well on chironomids (size 10-14 black or olive) and decided to give that a try. One area was amazingly hot and while I did OK catching some 12-14 inchers, I watched one couple in a boat nearby catch and release like crazy. NO LIE, one or both had a fish on every 3-5 minutes for several hours. Sometimes it's like that with chironomids, but usually not.

Poked around with a dry mayfly for awhile after that, but there didn't really seem to be much of a hatch that day and there weren't many fish working along the shoreline. Wind came up again and I decided to call it a day.

Chopaka is still my favorite lake, but there don't seem to be as many large fish this year (winter kill?) and the crowds are loving it to death on weekends. I plan on going back after Labor Day during the week. Most people are gone by then and the fishing is still great, at least that was my experience there last fall.

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