F-Bombs in the Air at Manzanita Lake

lassen-peak lassen-peak
LASSEN PEAK SERVES AS A PICTURESQUE BACKDROP TO THE ANGLING OFFERED AT MANZANITA LAKE IN THE LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK.

Bleeeep!!! I was startled when the F-bomb erupted from someone’s mouth and echoed through the clear mountain air, and I had to smile. I knew exactly what had happened. I’d been the victim of the same phenomenon at Manzanita Lake many times before.

You make a cast. For a minute or two, your eyes seem to bore holes in your dry fly or strike indicator. You are really concentrating and ready to cross the next fish’s eyes. (Here, fishy, fishy, fishy.) Seconds tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . by. Focus, focus, focus. After a while, there’s a frightful urge to steal a quick glance at the mountain, or its mirror image on the water, or the eagle, or those deer browsing along the bank. It’s such a lovely place! By the time you remember to get back to business, there are diminishing rings on the water where you’d been fishing, and it dawns on you that you’ve just missed another fish. BLEEEEEP!!! (You make a mental note to learn a few new swear words for the sake of originality.) While this can be frustrating, anglers learn that it is just part of the game at Manzanita.

The first thing you notice there is Lassen Peak (10,463 feet) towering above the water. The next thing you might notice are working fish. At 26 acres, the lake is big enough not to feel crowded (except on holiday weekends) and is small enough that you could fish most of it in a day if you wanted to. The average depth runs about 15 feet, with most of the bottom covered in lush, insect-producing vegetation. There are bushes growing out of the water along the south and west sides of the lake, and these often attract aquatic insects and cruising fish. The flats between the shore and these bushes can create the opportunity for some terrific sight fishing for tricky, but not impossible fish.

From an angler’s perspective, Manzanita Lake is the crown jewel of Lassen Volcanic National Park. It’s nestled just inside the north entrance to the park (at an elevation of 5,899 feet) an hour east of Redding off of Highway 44. A day pass runs $30 per vehicle (annual pass $55), and a valid California fishing license is required for each angler. Wild rainbow and brown trout abound in the lake, and there are regular hatches throughout the fishing season, which usually begins in May or June, depending on snow levels, and runs through Halloween. The lake is open to angling year-round, but snow limits access. All fishing is catch and release with artificial lures that have single barbless hooks. Bait is strictly prohibited. A 150-foot radius around where Manzanita Creek flows in, just north of the boat-launch ramp, is closed to fishing. Anglers can wade, use float tubes, pontoon boats, and other nonmotorized watercraft.

Equipment for Manzanita is pretty straightforward. Fly rods in the 3-weight to 6-weight range work best, and I prefer rods at least 9 feet in length, but you could get away with an 81/2-footer. In most cases you’re going to have to be able to cast at least 30 feet. My rod of choice for wade-fishing and working the flats is a 10-foot 3-weight. It has all the delicacy I need for spooky, shallow-water fish, and it roll casts a country mile if there are trees behind me.

The Early Season

At Manzanita’s elevation, the days can still be plenty chilly early in the season, so dress appropriately. The first hatch of the season is midges, and on cloudy days, these can hatch by the bazillion. Some days, though, the fish are not up on top, so it makes sense to start with midge patterns under a floating strike indicator. Zebra Midges, Mercer’s Gidget, or Mercer’s Midgling in size 18 are great choices. And don’t hesitate to give your midges a little wiggle. Midges beneath the surface do a lot of twitching, so raising your rod tip and sliding your strike indicator on the water a few inches every once in a while may make all the difference.

I’ve had early-season days when it seemed as though all the fish in the lake were holding in one big pod just off the Manzanita Creek inlet. Resist throwing a fly at them! Remember, it is illegal to fish within 150 feet of the creek, regardless of what the fish are doing. I’ve seen park rangers watch anglers through binoculars in this area, and they have a pretty good idea how far 150 feet is.

When the fish are actively rising, trout here will often take both individual dry flies (a Griffith’s Gnat or Harrop’s CDC Emerging Midge, size 20) or clusters of midges when available (Griffith’s Gnats, size 12 to 14). For this fishing, it’s a good idea to lengthen your leaders to 12 feet and go with 5X or 6X tippets.

Another good early season tactic is to fish an Intermediate sinking line and small leeches or Woolly Buggers (size 10 to 12). If the days are still chilly, the fish will be chilled, too, and sluggish, so you will want to make your retrieves as slow as you can stand. Keep the tip of your rod in the water. The takes can be subtle.

Midges will reign for a few weeks before the big hatch of the summer begins to take off. Manzanita has an unbelievable Callibaetis mayfly hatch, and the fish will gorge on these well into autumn. In my opinion, some anglers are a bit hasty in tying on a dry fly right away when they see rising fish, and would likely do better fishing a Callibaetis nymph under an indicator. Manzanita Lake trout cruise while they feed. While you may see a rise every so often, most of the fish are taking nymphs subsurface. A few trusted Callibaetis nymph patterns include Pheasant Tail Nymphs, Bird’s Nests, Copper Johns, and Mercer’s Poxyback Callibaetis Nymphs, size 12 to 16.

There are of course those glorious times when there are many rising fish, in which case there’s no reason not to fish on top. You can go old school and have a great time with traditional dry flies such as the Adams or a Paradun, size 14 to 18, or get more fancy with killer patterns such as Harrop’s Last Chance Cripple or a CDC Dun, size 14 to 18. The Callibaetis begin early in the season as size 12s to 14s, but by later in the year may run as small as size 16 to 18.

The Dog Days

Sometime in July, the weather starts to heat up and the fish become more difficult to fool, at least during daylight hours. There is solace in knowing that Redding and the Sacramento Valley are at least 20 degrees hotter than at Manzanita. During the summer, the fish can become rather persnickety, and there are even days (mercifully few) when the trout live up to all the horror stories about fish becoming ultra-selective. So, I’ve never understood why more anglers don’t take advantage of hitting Manzanita early and late in the day during the summer. I’ve had some outstanding outings when I’ve hiked around the lake at 7 in the morning, hunting trout. By the time most other anglers arrive to start fishing, the trout have gone off the feed, and I’ve already caught all the fish I could stand.

But what are the other options when the trout are having none of it, mid-summer? Think in terms of going back to the roots of fly fishing. Anglers of old just put their rods down and took time to really notice what was happening on the water. This remains an extremely useful approach.

Trout during summer can become especially selective to insect stages, so watch for that. No visible rises suggest you need to fish subsurface with nymphs. If you see rises, but there are no subsequent bubbles at the surface, then the trout are likely taking the nymph as it swims close to the surface to begin its transformation from a nymph into the adult mayfly. Cast out an unweighted Callibaetis nymph (see patterns above) and slowly strip it back. Callibaetis mayflies are good swimmers, and on a tight line you will not have to see the take in order to set the hook. You will know when you have a strike. Don’t forget to cut your leader back to about 4X or expect to break off a lot of fish. BLEEEEEP!!!

The transformation from nymph to adult represents the emerger stage, and occurs at the top of the water column, just beneath, within, and on the surface meniscus. Insects at this stage are momentarily stationary, and thus easy targets for feeding trout. If the hatching insect becomes stuck in the surface film, literally half-nymph and half-adult, and is unable to make the full transformation to the adult stage, it becomes particularly vulnerable to trout. Fly fishers call these helpless insects cripples. Patterns like Mercer’s Poxyback Emerger or Harrop’s Last Chance Cripple imitate the emerger stage admirably in sizes 14 to 18.

Spinners often confuse anglers because the trout are actively sipping things off the surface, but it’s hard to see anything on the surface of the water. Again, take a second and look around. Can you see the outstretched wings of mayfly spinners floating near you? What about in the air, where they appear as dainty aerial yoyos bobbing up and down in preparation for egg laying? Manzanita trout feast on Callibaetis spinners nearly every morning of summer. Most any spinner pattern will do for this fishing, but it’s hard to beat a Rusty Spinner, size 14 to 18.

Not everyone can handle fishing two dry flies at once, but if there’s no wind, and you can keep your casting loops open to prevent tangles, then consider using both a dry fly and a spinner, or a floating nymph and an emerger. Tie your upper fly to a 9-foot, 5X leader. Then tie a 16-inch to 24-inch section of 6X tippet to the bend of the first hook and tie on your second fly. You should know quickly if this fishing is for you or not. If you start getting tangled right away (BLEEEEEP!!!), cut off your dropper fly. Last but not least, if it appears the trout are taking dry flies, but summarily ignoring yours, your fly might be too large. Try dropping down to a smaller size, and don’t get lazy about dressing that fly with desiccant every few casts. It does make a difference. So does dropping down to a 6X tippet when you have to.

Other Summer Hatches

The Motorboat Caddis is another late June, early July phenomenon, but you have to be a night owl. These guys emerge right at dark and scuttle across the surface, creating a wake that drives the fish crazy. If you’ve ever fished the Hex hatch on the Fall River, you might recognize the sound of a fish taking a big bug on the surface in the dark, which probably sounds a lot like those kids from a few campsites away throwing large rocks in the water. In the dark, the fish won’t be selective as to pattern, so just toss out the biggest dry fly in your box and strip it back. You might want to shorten your leader and cut it back to at least 3X. These takes are not subtle.

A lesser-known hatch of summer is the flying ant hatch. Summer afternoons can be a bit blustery, with the wind generally blowing from west to east. One sign that the trout are taking ants is that you can see fish rising, but there are no bugs on the water. Of course, there are plenty of insects being blown out of the trees, but ants have a low profile on the surface and are hard to see. Cast out a foam ant pattern, size 14 to 16; you might be surprised.

Pay attention to the wind. It can complicate your dead-drift presentation by making this still water fish more like a spring creek. In other words, the wind can cause your fly to drag. Make sure there is at least a little slack between the tip of your rod and fly or strike indicator. Also notice the direction of the wind. In the afternoons it is often from west to east, blowing all those mayflies over toward the eastern shore. If you were a trout, where would you be?

The fall months are pretty similar to the summer months, except the Callibaetis mayflies get smaller. Most days, you can toss out a nymph or two under an indicator and reasonably expect to catch at least a few fish. That combined with the world-class scenery is enough to satisfy most of us.

Wading the Lake

On a recent Manzanita trip, my two adult sons and I decided to combine a little fishing with a hike around the lake. Having mainly fished Manzanita from a pram or float tube over the years, it had been a long time since I’d wade-fished here, and wading turned out to be a terrific idea. There were numerous places where doing so was easy, especially on the south and west sides of the lake, and there were plenty of feeding fish.

Like a lot of humans, trout are creatures of habit. When wade-fishing the flats, it’s wise to note that individual trout cruise around in semi-predictable patterns. See if you can mark the spots where fish have taken something off surface, and get your fly out there. The fish might be gone at the moment, but very likely they will be back. Be patient. Not too many people target these flats fish, so they generally aren’t as selective as you might think. If you see a fish rise but happen to have a nymph and indicator rig on your rod, toss it out there. Trout are less wary about taking food under the surface.


Shavehead

Besides Danish-American pioneer Peter Lassen, for whom the peak and park are named, there aren’t a lot of people who were significant in the history of Manzanita Lake. But there is one fascinating figure whom the Shasta Courier newspaper described in 1857 as “notorious.”

I’d been aware of the native Achomawi man they called “Old Shavehead” for quite some time. He was the chief of the Hat Creek Band and was supposedly involved in the murder of Samuel Burney (namesake of Burney, California) in the late 1850s. These were turbulent times, as violence between Native Peoples and European settlers threatened to dissolve into all-out war. Newspaper accounts claimed that soldiers arrived at Sam Burney’s home one day to discover him murdered and three natives carrying away his possessions. Two of the men were supposedly killed, but the third, the man we know as Shavehead, managed to escape. A large manhunt was organized, but I never found another reference to him until the year 1900, when he died.

Shavehead claimed to be the first man to ever set eyes on Manzanita Lake. He also claimed the lake was initially fishless, so he brought trout over from Hat Creek and dumped them in. Scientists calculate that the lake was formed around 300 years ago when an avalanche dammed a portion of Manzanita Creek.

Regardless of where Manzanita’s first fish came from, it is well documented that Shavehead (later referred to as Bob Shavehead or Old Shavehead) eventually lived in a shack on the south shore of Manzanita Lake. He netted fresh fish from Manzanita Creek and sold them to area ranchers until his death in 1900. He was the last surviving Hat Creek Indian. What bothered me was not knowing what had happened to Shavehead between going missing in 1857, when he was on the run, and his death in 1900.

Well, sometimes you just get lucky. The Shasta Historical Society in Redding has several photographs of Shavehead, including one of him standing next to his shack on Manzanita Lake. I’d seen the photo before, but had never stopped to read the fine print. It said, “I took care of Bob in jail accused of murder and sent to San Quentin for life, in later years was let out to die,” signed, George Albro.

Could it be that Shavehead was apprehended for the murder of Samuel Burney and spent all those years before returning to Manzanita Lake in San Quentin Prison? Seems plausible. Please contact me via this magazine if you know otherwise.

Chip O’Brien


Having a Blast

No one can deny that catching large wild rainbows and browns in the shadow ow of an active volcano sounds like a blast. But there is at least some potential for that “blast” to be something else. National Geographic recently named Lassen Peak one of “America’s Most Dangerous Volcanoes.” If that isn’t enough to stifle a yawn, it might interest you to discover that three more from the list (Mount Shasta in Northern California and Crater Lake and South Sister just over the border in Oregon) are not that far away. Lassen Peak most recently erupted (many times) between 1915 and 1920.

Chip O’Brien