Finally vacation! Only about an hour drive from the Newport family house and we were in Florence. Munsel Lake is right before you hit Fred Meyer, so we didn’t even have to go into town. We decided to go straight to the boat launch because we planned to boat across the lake and keep Tippy in the water the whole week. The little rental we booked had an awesome dock with a boat slip which was incredibly convenient.
We knew that the first day was going to be the best weather day, so we really tried to fish long. It was pretty evident that the lake had been stocked a few days prior because all of the trout were still hanging around the launch area, as were the boaters. We decided to go ahead and fish the trout instead of wasting the nice day scanning the perimeter of the lake for bass. It was pretty damned windy when we got there and Tippy’s little trolling motor was barely pushing through on the highest setting, but we managed for awhile. Stocker fishing was good and actually mildly exciting because there were a lot of varied sizes of fish. The wind kicked up pretty good around 5 so we headed in, got settled, and drank some beer. We loaded up again around 6:30 and had a shot at dry fly fishing at the main inlet that feeds the lake. This part was awesomely frustrating because the fish were exploding. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a biblical midge hatch and the fish were taking the midges rising to the surface as well as some surface insects. We did rise a couple of fish, but there was such an abundance of food that our flies were not all that rare or enticing. At about 7:30 we decided to call it and so did the fish. Off to the shack for more beer and leftover chinese.
The next day (Tuesday March 25th) it became apparent that we were going to have to split up. Tippy rides two people (and two dogs) max so MIL and I took the kayaks. This was my second experience actually using a kayak and my first fishing from one. I absolutely had a blast doing this. There was still a pretty strong wind coming directly from the part of the lake that MIL and I wanted to fish so we would powerhouse all the way to the other side of the lake and then drift with the wind until we were outside of the area where we were getting hits. Do this 30 times in a day and you’re getting a pretty good workout while fishing. Our arms were screaming at the end of the day.
With the wind situation there was no way that we were fishing dries, or that a midge could even control its flight pattern. We have a kind of tried and true method for fishing stockers and actually have a fly that we call “the lake fly” for this exact purpose. We use floating lines, tapered leader with a bit of tippet at the end, and a small black mohair leech with an orange tungsten bead (as seen in the boxes in the previous Munsel Lake Prep post). It destroys stockers; they can’t resist it. Just cast out as far as you can and do a variable strip. I pleasantly found out that you can even troll this fly in a kayak (or other vessel) and that works well too.
During the time the MIL and I were fishing stockers, T was looking into the yellow perch over in the deep part of the lake. He was fishing by himself in Tippy with the dogs while FIL was still in bed at about 9:00 am. Using the sonar he would mark fish in the depths and try to mark the gps, but the motor is on one end of the boat and the sonar on the other. He really needed two people because with the wind by the time he got to the back of the boat to check and mark a location, he had already drifted off. He did, in a brief break from the wind, manage to locate quite a few fish down deep. He attempted to fish them with a fly rod, but it was basically impossible to get down to where they were, aside from trying to properly present all of the awesome flies that we tied up just for them. Luckily, we had already pretty much anticipated this and brought the light tackle spinning rods and some small Gulp soft plastics. He set up a drop shot rig and fished on a rise starting at 60 feet deep and retrieving up to a 40 foot depth. With the wind, and running the whole show by himself, he managed to hook one yellow perch about 6 inches long, though he was marking many more fish. Throughout the week the weather got progressively worse, so we didn’t end up fishing perch again, but at least we figured it out and got one.
About the weather.....We had been so jacked for this vacation that when the bad weather hit, we really just stuck it out. When we went out early in the morning (around 8:30 or 9am) the wind was not so bad at around 10 mph. It really kicked into rage mode around 1pm. I live on the Oregon Coast and the rain was actually pretty impressive to me.
When it became apparent that there really wouldn’t be any other fishing than stockers, on the third morning we all decided to have a friendly numbers game competition. Most and biggest. That morning before we came in for breakfast was awesome! We found pods of porpoising kokanee, which was a huge surprise. We chased them around the lake and cast into the pods. Bonefishing for the Oregon Coast. The game immediately changed to most and biggest kokanee. We hate eating trout, so we generally don’t kill them (FIL and MIL like them though so we whacked a few of the bigger ones), but I don’t think that I had ever eaten kokanee before this so we needed enough for a fish fry that night. We went out again after breakfast and did see a few of the pods still and managed to catch about 8 to 10 kokanee for dinner, but throughout the day they seemed to dwindle and by the end, it was hit or miss. The trout were actually also spreading themselves throughout the lake so that began to dwindle as well.
I’m aware that the picture is a little gruesome, but MIL was overzealous about her victory in the competition and decided to clean all of the fish before we could get a full body shot. The trout is in there for body comparison.
The fourth day (Thursday March 27th) was kind of the final hurrah. The weather had degraded to thunderstorms with brief periods of clarity which we took advantage of. At this point the fish had all spread throughout the lake and fishing was pretty poor. We all pushed pretty hard because it was the last day, but we were burnt out and had basically used up our fishery. I did manage to troll up three trout, but could not actually catch any when I was physically casting. On the first day the trolling thing was exciting, but on the last day it was kind of infuriating because it felt like a cheat or a lottery. You never know when you’ll win. After trolling the three trout I finally just let the wind push me home and called it a vacation. We all came in around 3:30, pulled the boat out of the water, dry docked the kayaks, drank copiously, played card games, listened to FIL’s old motown music, ate steaks, and finished out the vacation. All in all I’d say it was a great time with some unexpected fish, but somehow vacations never live up to the hype that you create in your own brain. Maybe things would have been different if the weather was better. I certainly have nothing to complain about though, and would go to Munsel Lake again. Maybe more shine than rain.
Vacation? I thought you were always on vacay ;)
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