Caples Lake

I've been avoiding Caples all summer but finally figured i was due to go check it out.  This past week has been calm sunny mornings.  Perfect conditions for one of my favorite things, sight fishing still waters.  Caples was one of my favorite spots until they drained it this past fall, shocked and relocated most of the fish and pretty much destroyed a huge chunk of the food sources the trout used to thrive on.  As part of their deal though, the EID paid lots of money for lots of big trout to be placed back in the lake over the past few months.  There are plenty of small brookies, Mac's some catchable and sub catchable browns and some HUGE Dobson Rainbows from a private hatchery.  These fish eat a fly well and provide some good sport.  If you have a chance, do yourself a favor and keep an eye on the weather.  If it looks like a sunny day with light wind, grab your 6wt and head up to Caples.  

I like to sight fish from the rocks but stripping streamers from a boat or tube can be productive too.  
I saw lots of big fat rainbows patrolling the shore.  Sometimes they would come in schools of 4 or 5 fish.  There were surprisingly tight lipped though.  For the amount of shot i had, the number of fish hooked was pretty low.  The good thing was that i had almost constant shots.  
Due to the fact that most of the aquatic insects the fish used to eat like Calabeitis and Midges were killed off while draining the lake, the fish haven't really keyed in well on dry flies.  I couldn't get any of them to come up to the surface.  They weren't even looking up at all.  They were eating nymphs pretty well.  I got all my fish on a basic hopper dropper rig with a bead head nymph.  
Sight fishing the rocks is my favorite.  
Lots of big rainbows cursing around.  
The fish were surprisingly leader shy.  I got all my fish on 4x.  You have to set easy and play the fish very gently.  I managed to only land about half the fish i hooked.  The rest broke off.  
Last fish of the day was a killer little brownie.  He didn't look like the planters.  i suspect he was a hold over that managed to elude the shocking crews.  Maybe he can teach the big slobs how to eat dry flies.