Barrett Lake Fly Fishing Last Time for the Season

The Dam
Pine

The New Toys

The Spinning Formal Clouser (with Rattle Eyes and without)
The Arsenal-Scott S3S 7wt/Tibor Freestone with 250 gr, Sage XP 6wt/Tibor Tailwater with 150 gr, Thomas and Thomas Helix 5wt SW/Tibor Tailwater Airflo Bass taper, Sage VPSL 3wt(custom)/Galvan OB2 Floating

Many caught in Pine
2lber caught in Boneyard Bluegill on the Barrett Shad

Another day fly fishing Barrett Lake. As this was most likely my last visit to this place for the season, I had to make it count. This time I fished solo, giving me more time to do a bit of exploring and experimentation. Again I decided to rough it out I start with the first available entry time, 5am. This meant another day with very little sleep, maybe 2 hours. As it usually takes about 20 minutes or more to check in, drive to the marina, pay the entrance fee, set up, get the boat, etc., I decided against going in on the next entry time of 7am. By the time you are ready to fish, you may have already missed much of the early bite. It's really too bad they do not have a 6am train in.

Just like my first trip in May, the morning was freezing cold. I started fishing in the greenery just Northeast of the Marina. As always I tried first with Webb's Foamhead Popper. I trolled North along the edge reaching the point Ed like to fish. No fish honored me so I switched to Purple Clouser. Finally as the sun was making its way into the valley I was able to coax a LMB albeit a small one to take my fly. I managed a few more out of there but it was hardly as good as t was when Ed fished it last month. The wind pick up earlier than usual and I drifted down Hauser. Fish came in spurts, no one area was really "hot." Although I did manage to take 3 crappie in one section of the treeline. One which (the first one) was huge. It must have been at least 1.5 lbs maybe even two. The next one was as large as the one Ed caught last trip. Unfortunately both came off just when I was about to lip them and take a picture. The third one, of course the smallest among them, I was able to get a snapshot. I trolled into Boneyard and was hit hard, giving my rod a serious bend. It turned out to be a nice Largemouth. The bogagrip read 2lbs. I later found out the boga was giving false readings as there was sand in it. So the fish could have been even larger.
I eventually got out of Hauser with several fish. I decided to try Pine. I set anchor and landed two more 2lbs and several in the 1.5 category. After that I moved on to the Dam and only managed a few smaller bluegill. At that time it was already past 6pm and I was not really trying too hard as I was sleep deprived and generally beat. Not to mention my casting ability was pure crap by then. All in all I managed 29 fish that I remembered to count (there could have been a few I forgot), had several fish go unbuttoned just near the boat, and countless short strikes I missed hooking up.

Overall it was not the best day at Barrett but nonetheless a very good one and hopefully I'll be back next season to do even better.