The Stillwater Fly Fisher: Chasing California’s Top-Water Bite

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THE LAST LIGHT OF THE DAY IS THE SUREST TIME TO FIND FISH FOCUSED TOWARD FEEDING AT THE SURFACE. IF FISHING FOR BASS, A BLACK POPPER WILL MAXIMIZE CONTRAST WITH THE SKY.

For most stillwater fly anglers, the technique of choice is enticing fish to take flies at the surface. Some lakes lend themselves to successful top-water techniques better than others. Especially when it comes to bass and panfish, waters that fish best with poppers, sliders, divers, and other top-water flies are those that provide the fish with abundant cover, and of course, trout in lakes require cover, as well. And when to target fish with top-water flies is just as important for success. We’re lucky in California and throughout the West to have waters that provide good top-water action almost the whole year round. What follows here is a short primer of the things you should consider if you are seeking top-water action.

Cover

If you have had the pleasure of fishing the Everglades, or Possum Kingdom Reservoir in Texas, Caddo Lake on the Texas/Louisiana border, the East Texas impoundments on the Sabine River, or the bass lakes of Georgia and the Carolinas, you know that cover and lush vegetation mean big bass and plenty of fish willing to attack a top-water fly. In California, all our best bass waters are distinguished by the abundance of cover that they give fish. These include Clear Lake, which is our largest natural lake and has plenty of natural shoreline cover, and Indian Valley Reservoir, when fires and low water haven’t affected the fishery as they have in recent years. The vast Delta, in spite of dredging, riprap, and channelization, also still has the invaluable cover that fish need. As a zoologist/botanist, I often fantasize about an earlier California and wish I could have seen a natural Delta, in spite of the mosquitoes and malaria that kept most people out.

Time

In the California foothills, as well as in Arizona, and Nevada, the topwater season starts in late March or early April. Determining when fish will start to focus on the surface depends a lot on the sequence of incoming cold fronts. Move farther north, to Oregon at Davis Lake and Wickiup Reservoir, with their northern largemouth populations, and top-water angling is more of a summer thing, as is the case with smallmouths in the Truckee Basin impoundments. Lake Berryessa has a population of threadfin shad that support a trout fishery in the cooler months, but there is also a winter top-water fishery for large bass out in open water, fish that are chasing both threadfin and trout. Threadfin shad are the food base in many other lakes, as well, and support good fishing for bass earlier in the year than lakes that lack them.

Once the top-water season has begun, it is often possible to experience periods of high feeding activity, known as the “bite.” Among the most sought-after top-water bites are the frog bite at Clear Lake, the Motorboat Caddis hatch, which brings up big trout at Manzanita Lake, the carpenter ant fall for smallmouths at Lake Siskiyou and Scotts Flat Reservoir, and believe it or not, a spring nestling swallow bite where bridges cross water when newly hatched young, fighting and reaching for mother’s freshly secured food, fall from their nests.

Places

There are, of course, many more great waters for topwater action beyond Clear Lake, Indian Valley, the Delta, and Lake Berryessa. It helps to keep an open attitude when seeking such places; not all are in the Central Valley or the foothills. Two northern Sierra lakes, for example, offer at times fine top-water action: Antelope Reservoir on the upper Feather River drainage near Susanville and Lake Almanor, which is a bit down the mountain. Also keep an open attitude about species. There is a top-water fishery for striped bass at New Hogan Reservoir and at San Luis Reservoir and its forebay. The forage fish that bring the stripers to the top there are also threadfin shad. And while steepsided foothill reservoirs such as Don Pedro aren’t my first choice for top-water action, but even they will have microenvironments that provide food and cover. A plethora of small and large farm and ranch ponds, water-ski lakes, retirement community lakes, lakes in public parks, and golf course impoundments can also offer decent, sometimes spectacular, top-water fly fishing. Google maps, particularly the aerial-image option, is a useful tool for finding these waters. So are paper road maps, which show the location of public lakes. Lakes in public parks, even those in big cities, may hold bass and panfish. It is worth contacting your local parks department to ask about angling opportunities, as well as whether their waters are closed to fishing. Golf course lakes can be sizable and productive. At periodic drawdowns, which may be seasonal or every few years, you will see lots of barren bottom. That’s why fish will seek docks, rock walls, and small runoff channels perpendicular to the shoreline. These same fish orient to food coming from above. If it’s your frog limitation, you’re in luck.

All farm ponds may not have shoreline trees and brush, but they still have plenty of cover in the form of grasses, reeds, and inshore shoals right down to and into zones that harbor damselflies, dragonflies, terrestrials, and amphibians, all of which bring fish inshore. A favorite lake out of Oakdale offers sight fishing to bass rooting for damselflies and almost anything else, causing inshore reeds to wave back and forth. A cast anywhere near them with a dragonfly or damselfly adult pattern or frog imitation will bring an explosive dash, surge, and strike.

Perhaps the most important overarching consideration is this: If you’re partial to the thrills of top-water action, for the rush that comes when a bass blows up on a popper or slider, seek out the waters that provide the most cover for the fish. It’s the surest way to get your adrenaline fix.

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