Pale orange hues lined the few wispy clouds that hung in the sky at the far end of the lake.
The air was hot and dry and lifeless. My shirt was clinging to me. After a late start and more hours of driving than I had wanted – well, all I wanted to do was sit in the shade of the tall cedar outside the front door of the cabin and enjoy the evening. I sat down on the step and watched as the sun began its descent into the watery depths of evening. A chorus of frogs began to serenade. A pair of loons began their lonesome calls to each other across the lake. It turned into a perfect evening.
The next morning, after sleeping in for the first time in as long as I could remember, I made breakfast. The days ahead held nothing but promise.
A while later I carted my electric trolling motor, two batteries and all my fishing gear down to the dock. Soon I would be casting my line to what I hoped would be a lake full of hungry and eager fish. Within minutes I was into my first fish.
The lake has always held plenty of eight- to 12-inch rainbows. By mid afternoon I had caught and released no less than a dozen nice little trout. A good first day of fishing.
The following day the temperature soared. All I could do was try to escape the heat. My day was spent walking back and forth to the fridge. My evening was spent reading an old western pocket book I found lying around.
The temperature continued to rise steadily over the next two days. The fish responded by heading for deeper waters where they just sort of stacked themselves up like cord wood, not willing to show even the slightest interest in anything I might toss out or drag their way. Two days went by without a single bite.
Motivated by the fact that I had to leave the next morning, I decided to give it one more chance and headed out shortly after the sun started going down. I was counting on the fact that even at their most lethargic, trout will sometimes give in to something like a leach or dragonfly nymph pattern dragged along the bottom.
Look long and hard enough into just about any Interior lake and you are bound to see the dark, flat, wavy, undulating form of a leech. They can be found throughout the water column at any time of the day or night. When trout see the undulating motion of a leech swimming about in the water, they simply can’t help themselves.
Dragonflies exist, in the nymphal stage, anywhere from two to six years on lake bottoms where they are continuously moving about, feeding, growing and maturing towards the adult stage. If presented in front of the right fish at the right moment, a dragonfly nymph pattern can produce the kind of strike that will sit you right up in your boat – especially in the late evening.
Not all lakes contain freshwater shrimp, but lakes that do usually contain the best eating fish. Shrimp, unlike insects, do not lay eggs or hatch out at specific times or seasons of the year. They are continuously swimming about, day and night, feeding and being eaten by other creatures, including fish. I have caught plenty of rainbow trout in the evening on shrimp patterns even when they have failed to look at leeches and/or dragonfly nymphs.
So, in the late hours of my last evening on the lake, I found myself sitting out in the boat, doggedly determined to catch one more fish. I tied on a pregnant shrimp pattern and presented it every way I knew how. It proved to be a long and futile night.
Having said that, I’ll be just as doggedly determined the next time I head up there.
