The opening weekend of Crowley was a success for most. The turnout for the weekend was the largest I have seen in a very long while.
Saturday was a beautiful day, the forecast called for high winds up to 30mph but we didn’t see any winds until the afternoon and they were in the 20’s from the west.
I used a quarter tank of gas, moving around the entire lake looking for the highest concentration of fish I could find. I also found some very good hatches of midges coming off the water all over the lake so this is a very good sign for fat and happy trout.
McGee Bay held some fish in the 15 to 21 feet of water but had at least 200 boats and very tight quartered. Big Hilton held a few fish, Alligator and Leighton seemed to be bone dry and nothing found on the scope. Crooked Creek held some fish in the 25 to 17 foot range but a lot of singles only.
Sandy Point seemed to hold the highest concentration of fish in the 25 to 17 foot range in the morning and fish were moving up into the shallows in 10 feet of water from about 10 am to noon and then disappearing back into the depths. This is how I fished Saturday, Sunday and Monday with good success, moving in from deep water to shallow and back to deep water.
The trio of Patrick, Delo and Eric did well on there guided trip with me on Monday with 31 trout to the net and probably about 25 perch mixed in for fun. The perch were pretty thick and in good shape and I caught at least 50 perch along with 23 trout on my Saturday and Sunday scouting. We had solid fish, the largest fish into the 20″ range, rainbows, browns and cutthroat.
The weather over the last three day had two different fronts come in and put down the fish for a while. The rest of this week into the weekend calls for mostly sunny skies, with hight pressure that will trigger the fish back into eating mode and should be very good catching.
The water clarity and lake level look amazing and looks like things will be very good this season.
I have openings this weekend if anyone would like to be guided this weekend.
Please be safe and courteous out on the water.
I do love me some “Stillwater” Fly Fishing………Ernie