The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

A friend invited me to join him fly fishing on a pay for play near Northstar Ski Resort - Sawmill Lake. We fished Friday all day and Saturday till noon. Nice time! We each caught a number of nice fish on a variety of techniques from small terestrials to midges and buggers and nymphs. The lake turned out to be a lot more techincal than I expected. I worked a number of cruising trout Friday morning and watched them spurn pattern after pattern. They often came up and nosed the fly before summarily rejecting it! I changed leader size, fly patterns and every so often was rewarded with a take and screaming run. We each caught fish in the 20"+ range, with Rick capturing big fish honors with a 24" rainbow Friday morning on the first fish of the trip.

Saturday morning we shared the lake with Sawmill Joe and two of his clients. The two clients were new fly fisherman and I was very impressed with his patience and willingness to share his depth of fly fishing expertise with this father and son. About the time we left, the casting lessons, float tube lessons, knot tying, etc, were complete and they set out fishing in earnest. Curious if they tied into a few fish.

Beautiful weekend and great to get away and spend some time with a fly rod in my hand. Those days have been few and far between so far this year. And even better to get the rod to bend a few times!

Here's a picture of Rick netting a a nice fish.

Nice fishing, eh. Joe is a terrific guy as well as an excellent guide. He treats those fish as if they were his kids. Water still looks down from the springtime. Is Trent's pram still tied up near the ramp?- cheap storage I suppose. We were there with the Tracy Fly Fishers last June when the thunder bumpers started all those fires in the Sierra. Joe, at the time, was suggesting anything resembling Alder flies and even gave us a black Sharpie to alter our caddis patterns in order to match the hatch. A couple of us walked the shoreline and fished cripples and dries to cruisers around the weed beds. Excellent fishing and amazingly healthy fish. Which reminds me, I have to get a bigger net before going back.

Hey Phil,

Sounds like a great time was had and that sure is a mighty pretty lake . Now that my oldest son is living with us again for a while I am going to take advantage of that opportunity to make a few trips with him this fall.

Best Wishes and Tight Lines!

Grampa Bill