Lake Mendo Report

Got out yesterday to give it a try.  Had a fly rod just in case and two casting rods with a bucket of live minnows.  Fished from about 8:30 am to 2 pm.  Never saw a boil and, in fact, never marked what I was sure was a school of shad.

I had 8 strikes on the minnows with four hook ups and landed two fish.  Both were on the skinney side, which leads me to believe that the bait situation in the lake is poor.  One was about 5 lbs and the other was about 7.  Both went back.  Also caught one largemouth. 

All the fish were marked at 15-25 feet, making using the fly rod an effort not worth trying.  Also very difficult to tell schools of stripers from the billions of carp that are now in the lake.  I think I have it figured out though as the carp seem to "string out" more on the graph.

Fishing should remain fair until we get enough rain to dirty the water.  It was a beautiful day to be out.  I would have taken pics but I drowned my camera last week when I rolled the yak on Eagle Lake fishing for trout....now that was fun!!! Note to self...buy a waterproof camera next time. 

By the way, fishing at Eagle Lake was more than fantastic.  Two of us caught between 20 and 30 nice (18-24") trout per day and had bigger ones on.  The yaks gave us the mobility to get away from the normal bank fishermen and explore areas that are seldom fished but had loads of fish stacked up feeding on chubs.

Tight lines folks...have fun out there.

dude,  thanks for the report. i've been wondering whats going on up there. sorry to hear about your camera. where is eagle lake ? do they have camping?
                                                         jack

dude,  thanks for the report. i've been wondering whats going on up there. sorry to hear about your camera. where is eagle lake ? do they have camping?
                                                         jack

Eagle Lake is just north of Susanville.  Camping would be REALLY cold this time of year, when the fishing with flies is at its best.  The good news, you can google Eagle Lake Rentals and get on line with Heritage Real Estate that rents some nice, and relatively inexpensive, houses.  That's what I do and go up with others spliting the cost three or four ways.

Charlie,

What fly patterns were working best, if you don't mind?

Thanks!

rob
jrsyboy

Charlie,

What fly patterns were working best, if you don't mind?

Thanks!

rob
jrsyboy

Don't mind at all.  I used #8 sparkle wooley buggers with a sparkle chenille body, slightly weighted with 4-6 wraps of medium small lead.  The flies all had cinnamon or rust colored marabou tails with 3-4 strands of crystal flash.  The bodies were either light olive, dark olive or peacock sparkle chenille (small).  The hackle was Jay Fair's Fiery Brown.  It was the hot fly as I tie these up a lot and I gave many away up there to folks who weren't hooking up...they immediately, in most cases, caught fish.  I was fishing with an intermediate line on a 5 wt and others were fishing with floating lines.  The fish were caught in 1.5 to 4 feet of water, wherever we fished.  Out in deeper water, when fishing from the kayak, all we could catch were 10-14 inch fish....the biggies were in the shallows.  I saw one that I would guessimate (and I've been fly fishing a LOT of years) at 7-9 pounds that swam right by me at about 8 feet....couldn't get my fly in front of it in time as it disappeared.