Idaho Fish Report

Paulina Lake was good this week, again despite the Full Moon, it was a week of interesting fishing, hard fought wins and cool discoveries.
For one, I sparingly use a throat pump on occasional fish to get an idea on what the menu is. One of the fish was quite full on a combo on black chironomids #18, but also had several robust olive scuds in his sample. Going through my scuds, I found a scud that my good friend Chester and I used to tie for the Crooked River in the 80’s when I was working at the Fly Box and going to COCC. I may have actually tied that one in the 80’s based on Chesters example! It was on a TMC 3761 #12 hook, had a Hareline Olive Tan dubbing for the body, picked out to simulate legs, and Olive Antron Shell back ribbed with Fine Silver Wire. The fish loved it and it brought back great memories at the same time.
Again, the Olive Bugger with the Orange Bead was good, Red, Black and Olive Chironomids were productive, a Tan 2 Bit Hooker and a Cates Turkey were all good under indicators or stripped on a Camo Line. On top beetles were good, ants were a close 2nd and 2 of the 3 days on the lake there were a lot of hoppers finding there way in to the water and the fish crushed them. We caught out 1st fish of the season on a hopper which delights me more than you’d imagine!