Lake Cocolalla Fishing Report 8.16.17

As we pulled up to the boat launch, I looked across the lake and saw one-to two foot waves cresting with whitecaps. I turned to Steph and said, "It's a little windy, but still very fishable."

That may have been a stretch. The truth was, I had worked all day at the shop, and had ingrained the thought of fishing Coco into my head. Luckily as the evening went on, the wind died down, and the lake’s surface turned into glass.

The water clarity wasn't great. It seemed a little green, but that didn't seem to effect the fishing. For the most part, we were looking for trout. Armed with two dry-fly rods, and two fast-sinking rods, we were ready to reach the fish at any depth. We started along the southwestern shoreline in hopes of finding a couple deep browns willing to eat our streamers. I have found rust colored flies work very well in this lake, so I started off the evening with a 1/0 Rust Slump Buster. The first spot was great for a couple largemouth, but no trout.

So we shot over to the southern stream inlet. I knew there wouldn't be much more than a trickle dumping into the lake, but it was worth a try. We hit the lilly pads, and the nearby drop-off. This only resulted in a couple hard grabs, and a few small aggressive perch.

I decided to jet back over to the first spot. A couple casts went unnoticed, and then I got a screaming eat. Adrenaline racing, I strip set the hook to find nothing on the other end. I gave it a two-second pause and got another great hit, so I set the hook. Still nothing. I continued to work the fly back to the boat to find thee catfish following my fly. I tossed it back out, let it sink to the bottom, and hooked up to a chunky kitty cat. Not what I was looking for, but a rush regardless. I worked the cats until sunset only to pull up a beautiful rainbow. The catfish loved my Rusty Slump Buster, but were short striking the fly. This sounds like something a nice stinger hook could resolve.

Need materials to tie up your own catfish flies?

I will definitely go back to this lake with the intention of hooking a big catfish on the fly. Look out carp, there is a new species on the map.