Went to Roche Lake on Sunday evening. It looked like an "aluminum hatch" at the west end when I arrived but it was getting late in the afternoon and people were starting to leave. The only thing missing was KJ... he was supposed to have come out earlier but I didn't see his truck.

The news was that green chironomids with red rib and green head or small olive and red with a black bead head and just a little white above the bead.

Looking at the surface of the water produced a 'smorg' of spent casings including small #16 chironies to large #10 bomber chironomids. Throw in some mayfly and the odd caddis and this looks better than the Kings Mansion hosting a wedding!

I wandered over to 'Monster Bay' and was picking up lots of fish on my fish finder at the first point. I decided to anchor and cast using chironomids on both lines but after about a half an hour there was nothing biting.

As I looked to the south end of the lake there were dozens of terns diving and darting down near the last island before the 'no gas motors' zone. I pulled up anchor and headed down there. There was one fisherman in that area so I started heading in that direction only to find out it was my friend KJ. He found another spot to put in and had caught 4 fish through the afternoon (around 4pm)in monster bay. Apparently the fish were not very big and he didn't keep any.

We both anchored in the bays just east of the island. I caught my first fish on a green chironie. I lost another. KJ moved a couple of times and tucked in behind me, closer to shore. It wasn't 5 minutes in that spot when he landed a nice 17.5" rainbow.

About 8 pm the fish started to rise a little more around the little island so I wandered over and anchored on the south side of the island. I landed a 14" fish right away (on my indicator line), missed one more with the naked line and then didn't have a strike until pulling up anchor around 9:20pm. I switched flies a few times trying mayfly nymphs, chromies, damsels and micro-leeches.

I wanted to cruise through 'monster bay' before heading in so I drifted along the shore where fish were starting to rise. I decided that I would grab my naked line, shorten the leader and put on a sedge. Third cast I had a strike but couldn't keep it on. As I got deep into the bay a nice roll and slurp rippled the water within casting distance and I put the sedge right on the mark. 1 steamboat...2 steamboats... 3 steamboats...bang! A nice fish. I played it for a few minutes and finally netted the 17.5" 'bow.

It was 10:10pm and the light was disappearing fast. I tried a few more casts as I crossed through the bay toward the point and actually lost 2 fish. It was almost 11pm before I got to shore.

Beautiful night.
The caddis are coming...

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