Recently a friend and customer visited the shop. It seems that on a recent lake excursion to an area he frequently fishes he encountered huge hatches of size 6 and 8 caddis, bloodworm fall migration, floating snails, backswimmers, etc, but saw very little to no fish activity. He fished many lakes with lots of insect activity but with the same end result and has since been considering not returning to the area.

Since I’m a fellow lake fisherman and have encountered the same situation numerous times, I suggested the following…

•  In my boat bag I carry a marble-sized bag with a couple of dozen pea-sized rocks. I will scatter six to twelve of these pea-sized rocks into an area that I know fish to frequent or lie and give it about five minutes before looking for fish activity. Trout are about as curious as house cats and will about 90% of the time swim over to investigate which will give you a clear indication of whether the lake has possibly summer or winter killed or is otherwise void of fish at this time.

It seems that North American Natives and some ingenious others would use this tactic when spearing fish.

Be sure to checkout Aaron’s feature fly gallery and future tips, tactics, and techniques. 

Wayne Posyluzny, November 2009