Surface temps in our Calabogie lakes is 67-69F.  That is safe enough for Catch and Release fishing.   And also the fish will come to the surface for bugs and your flies!  The above brookie was caught on an emerging midge which was just below the surface.

At another lake, I caught a rainbow down deep with a Coney Leech.  It really should be called a Minky Leech as I had tied it with longer mink fur.   Mink has more action then rabbit.  My cats also like the strip of fur as I find it in all sorts of places in the house.

My favorite rainbow lake has been recently invaded by pumpkinseed.  With MNR's approval I am removing as many as I can catch.  I have a wet bag and I put them in and take them home for the raccoons.  It is OK fishing with the 3wt.  This winter I shall make a 1 wt fly rod to continue my ethnic cleansing in style.   Please do the same.  Many readers of this blog know what lake I am talking about.  It is one of the OFS's adopted lakes  in which we did supplementary stocking a few years back.

A club member asked to tag along on a weekend.  I don't normally fish weekends as I usually have a choice when I can go.   I suspected my lake might be busy but it wasn't.  It is probably because we are into the 'summer doldrums' even for bass fishing.   A friend, now departed, once quipped that, "if you are not catching bass, you are not in the water!"  However, on holiday Monday, I spent two or three hours on the water before catching this 20 inch LM.  And it was the only bass I caught, other than a 6 inch job.   Mind you large sunfish can give quite a battle and there were plenty of those around. 

I couldn't believe that the fly choice was the problem but this fish struck on the very first cast after putting on a bright yellow Coney Leech.  The lake is only 10 feet deep and I was fishing the dropoff as deep as I could get the fly.    The surface temperature had risen 4 degrees to 76F in just a couple of days so they were likely holding as deep as they can, perhaps where there is a spring.  There isn't much O2 in 76F water so even bass avoid it if they can.   For trout that is near fatal temperature which is why I'm still fishing bass and not trout.

The forecast is for a cool latter August so I may be trout hunting sooner than usual.   I don't mind this weather at all!

A friend asked me to try out one his flies to see how it tracked, etc.  He had weighted it like the Coney Leech, one of my favorites mentioned several times in my posts.   I told him that the fly was pretty small for bass, more of a trout fly. 

It was a great success as seen above.  This fellow is about 20 inches.  The other species liked it as well, especially the perch (one of which was big enough to bring home).  I always bring perch home to eat.  They compete with my target species (trout and bass) for food and can ruin a fishery as they reproduce much faster.  Our trout don't reproduce and have to be stocked.  OMNR told me that they really shouldn't stock lakes that have perch because the trout will starve.  So all you fishermen out there have a duty to catch and eat perch.  Get to it.

The fly in question is a Hamill's Killer, tied Canadian style.  My friend had wound an even layer of non-lead weighted material.