Brian Chan is considered, by many, as the authority on stillwater fly
fishing. He and Skip Morris wrote, "Fly Fishing Trout Lakes" and I have
read it and learned a great deal. Also, "Strategies for Stillwater" by Dave
Hughes comes highly recommended as well.

chris

"RalphH" wrote in message
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"snakefiddler" wrote in message
...
yesterday my son and i went fishin at a local lake in blowin rock ,
(appropriately called trout lake). he fished with his spin rod, i with
my
fly rod. he had an artificial worm on his hook, which landed him his
first
trout. i, in spite of trying a few different flies, got nothing. my
question is this. in the absence of a hatch, when fishing for trout in
lakes, does one approach fly selection differently than when fishing
streams?


you ever fish in there mark?

snakefiddler



It is somewhat different to fish a lake than river. The biggest difference
is that the lake is relative featureless. In a river you easily see pools,
riffles and flats etc. Trout in lakes tend to concentrate in certain areas
just as in rivers; shoals, sunken islands, drop offs, creek inlets, spring
holes, treed shorelines etc. Many who fish a new lake for the 1st time
find
the drop off between shoreline shoals and deep water then 360 the lake
trolling a basic fly like a wooly bugger, a leech or a scud. This will
usually locate fish. Then concentrate on those areas.

The forage for trout in lakes is usally a bit different as well. In
general
midges, scuds, damsel nymphs and dragons are important, caddis less so and
stone flies all but absent. If I don't know what food predominates I use
a
smaller wooly bugger (#10) in olive if the lake has lots of weed and in
black or brown if the bottom is mud. If I catch a fish I'll sample it's
stomach contentrs either by autopsy or with a stomach pump.

A third consideration for lakes is stratification. The water stratifies by
temperature. When surface temps exceed 65 degrees trout will not feed on
shoals or close to the surface. In summer ideal temps may be 30 feet down.
Time to get out Type 3,4 or even type 6 full sinking lines.

Some years a go Randall Kaufman published a good book on lake fishing. I
think it's still in print.