The March Rain Window


Sunday-March 18, 2018: The day after St Patricks Day was a cold and foggy.  I scraped ice off my truck windows and headed to the lake around 7am.  I was excited to get back out even if it was slow.   The last 5 years of February have been  slow but that was when there was no water in the lake.   This year,  every month seems to be pretty predictable and the fish seem bigger.   Even on slow days like today,  its not unlikely to get a couple 5-8 lbrs  amongst a half dozen fish.   I haven’t been getting any dinks the last couple months like last year.   The water today was 54 degrees and the lake is filling.   It rained pretty good last week and the water was cooler than last weekend but still clear. I fished the west side like last week but it was slower.  The fish were slow and most of the fish I landed today were on pretty light hits.  It seemed the fish were too cold to fight,  A couple of them came right in.

The best fish of the day was similar to last week.  As I stripped the fly back to the boat,  I started my next cast  by roll casting my fly and line  to the surface,  as I watched my fly accelerate toward the boat, I could see a 5lb striper chasing it.  I stopped the roll cast with my rod almost straight in the air and fish nailed the fly.   I backcast the fly line to set the hook and the fish took off.   I sure like sight fishing stripers hitting the fly.   One really fun fish like that keeps me coming back.

Vaughn and Wayman had 6 when I met them at Monument.  They finished their day on a deep school at mouse ears with 15 total.   Vaughn introduced me to a young skilled flyfisherman -Nate.  He was fishing out of his new 2018 Crestliner Super Hawk.  I was extremely impressed with the newest model of my 11 year old boat.   I especially like the bigger engine,  higher top speed of 40mph and the huge rear casting platform that can convert to comfortable seats.  Im going to upgrade to this boat in the near future.

 

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “The March Rain Window

  1. 2 questions; it looks like you are fishing a clear, intermediate line. It also looks like a pulse disk. Are the fish higher in the water column as the water cools? It seems like Aug-Oct you were fishing T-14? And is the pulse disk tougher to throw? Seems like a lot of air resistance, like a big popper.

    • After my last trip out to the delta with Steve Santucci I was convinced the neutral buoyancy flies fish better to 15 feet up with intermediate outbound shorts- better hang time with straighter line. I prefer t-11 with mono anything deeper than 5 feet and shallower than 15. I like pulse discs and use them 90 percent of the time. With the right size (4s mainly) on the right fly, no issues casting for me with t-11s and t-14s and short 4-5 ft 20 lb leaders.

      • Thanks, Meng, for sharing your hard earned knowledge. The learning curve is steep ; I get great enjoyment watching your video while I go to striper fishing school.

  2. Nice hookup on the roll cast! My FishHawk has the extendable/convertible rear deck/bench seat. Love it. It was a big selling point for me.

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