Lakes in Okanogan County are in a similar situation to the B.C. lakes in terms of insect hatches being 2 or 3 weeks behind normal. Last year's conditions were a couple of weeks ahead of normal at this time so the difference is relative to last year seems to me to be about a month. None of the U.S. side lakes were subject to the winter kill that is widely rumored for the B.C. lakes (many say these reports are overstated.) I fished Aeneas Lake on Friday and Saturday. Friday a moderate hatch of chironomids in sizes 10 to 14 got fish moderately excited for two or three hours starting at about 10:30 am. The color de jour was black and a group of 10 anglers from a fly club were catching fish at the north end at a rate that averaged about 3/angler/hr. Sunday the hatch was slight at best although weather conditions were nearly identical until about 2:00 pm when the wind suddenly picked up to about 15-25 mph; ending the chironomid fishing for most (since most fish chironomids exclusively under bobbers.) I had better luck on Sunday with a flashy green chironomid in a size 12. The few chironomids that were hatching were lighter colored and had a faint blue tint - or at least that's the way it looked to me. I think that many anglers base their color selection on the color of shucks which are nearly always black. It's important to note the actual color of chironomids before they hatch at the surface, especially when fish are feeding selectively. This partly explains the large selection of chironomids you'll find that the most experienced chironomid junkies carry. Only a rare mayfly or damsel fly was noted and insect hatches still haven't picked up enough to get fish really feeding on them in earnest. Weather is supposed to get very warm next week so hopefully that will trigger the little critters. Keith -----Original Message----- From: Dan Reynolds [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2001 9:37 AM To: Waflyfishers Subject: fishing report --- Dan Reynolds --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- EarthLink: It's your Internet. Just got back from - snip
