Lake Fly-Fishing

[Jon]

I've never really done much lake fly-fishing at all. I'd be very interested in hearing people's impressions/thoughts on it?

Do you use sinking lines? Curious how that would be?

[rio6699]

There are many types of fly lines for different situations. When lake fishing,
I would suggest a medium sinking fly line and a dry line. Use the sinking fly line when searching for fish while trolling a leech pattern fly. Use the dry fly line when you see the fish rising to take midges or mayflys from the surface water.
In the morning and the evening trout like to cruise the shoals looking for scuds or whatever might be emerging to hatch on the surface. Entomology is an interesting topic to google. You can learn a lot about the life cycle of mayflies, mosquitoes and other terrestrials. These are the food of choice for trout. Learn about chironomids and how to fish them.
I have been fishing my whole life (mostly fly fishing) and am still learning.
Take a child fishing and see their eyes light up when they catch even the smallest fish.
Get out there and have fun fishing.

[gbuss]

Well I mostly like to use a floating line. I normally use anywhere from 9 to 20' leaders depending on the depth of the water. If you plan on fishing chronimids then get your self a bell weight 1/4 oz with a swivel to check your depth. Then set you struck indicator so you are about 6 to 8 inches off the bottom and start working up the water colum.

[blamecanada]

I do fly fish lakes a lot!!!

My favorite set-up(Chironimids) is also a dry line with up to a 25' leader with a strike indicator set to the depth the fish are at. I add a small split shot about 18" above the fly to get it down to the depth faster.

This type of set-up works great- But i does take practice being able to cast a 25' leader with a fly,split shot, and a strike indicator....Lots of bird nest and tangles will happen--But once the cast is perfected the fishing will be un-real.

Some times if the fish are feeding on the surface i will just fish with a dry fly and a typical 9' leader. One rod set up for Chironimid and the other dry....I love fishing with two rods- Make for exciting times!

[Chan]

I fly fish the lakes quite a bit. My all around set up consists of floating line with about a 30" leader. About 20" down I use a popping bug and at the very end I'll put on a busy bee, I call them brim killers. It's a great set up for brim, blue gill, bass, and even the very rare catfish.
It's great fun when you have 2 3 quarter pound brim on the same line.