Canyon Reservoir and Duck Lake. But I’ d done that while fishing from shore, or in a boat, in shallow water, just 10 yards or so from the bank. When I met up with Chan he motored us to a shoal on a 50-acre lake he likes and told me to tie 20 feet of tippet to my existing leader. He added,“ put a lead weight on your fly and drop it to the bottom.” I didn’ t know what to say in response, let alone how I might cast the entire contraption. Chan, sensing my hesitation said,“ It’ s not pretty.”
The weight, of course, was not to be cast. Instead, I clipped the lead weight to my fly and dropped it over-board. When it hit bottom and my leader went slack, I raised the weight six inches off bottom, pegged a cork to the leader at the water line, and then hand-lined the fly in and removed the lead. This way, Chan explained, I could cast( huck, chuck, whip and duck might be a more accurate description) the fly to a likely spot and let it sit, know-ing it would be about six inches off bottom, right where he marked fish on the sonar. A bead head on the chirono-mid, plus a barrel swivel placed eight inches above the fly, was all the weight needed to reach that depth. Once I’ d cast the fly out 10 feet it became a waiting game.
Two nights prior, while fishing out of Corbett Lake Lodge southeast of Merritt, I was overheard telling a couple anglers that I wouldn’ t participate in the deep water chironomid game.“ Too slow,” I’ d said adding,“ I’ d probably fall asleep in my pram.” A guy who said he’ d fished the lake for something like 46 straight years pulled me aside and said, with authority,“ Don’ t overlook it. Fishing chironomids is not boring.”
Fair enough. But I didn’ t fish chironomids the following day at Corbett. Why would I? There was an excel-lent late morning Callibaetis mayfly emergence that had the fish slurping below the surface and on top, and with calm conditions I could sight fish for‘ bows that ranged between 17 and 21 inches. For a while the fishing was hit and miss, but around noon the number of rises seemed to quadruple within five minutes. I moved the pram to where I’ d just seen five rises and