Ellis lake is a tricky lake to pattern. The lake sees a lot of pressure during the warm months in the spring, summer, and fall and depending on the timing of the year, certain species will either turn on or off. With a week of warm 70 degree weather, the largemouth should have turned on but I haven’t found them yet.

Gear anglers who fish Ellis like to throw their lures and plastics parallel to the rocky sidewalk. They often throw pretty close to the bank targeting fish in the shallows about 1ft – 2ft deep. This strategy makes sense but I rarely see them hook up. Why is this?
A few things they may be doing wrong is covering water too quickly, not covering enough depth, or making the wrong retrieve. I enjoy observing and trying to understand why other anglers are or aren’t catching fish. If they aren’t successful I won’t imitate if they are I will copy. 

When I fish Ellis Lake I throw my flies perpendicular away from the bank rather than along it. Although it takes longer to cover water I can hit each depth column much more efficiently: throw my flies across, wait for it to sink, retrieve, take two steps, rinse and repeat. Fishing perpendicular can also help you avoid catching the smaller species that like to hang out in the snag rocks closer to the banks.

The bank of Ellis is a sidewalk that is made up of broken concrete. Not every part of the bank is made the same way therefore different species of fish will hold in different locations. I have been fishing different depths using different retrieves in different locations with different flies but I haven’t been able to track the prespawn pattern. The bass should be turning on any time now and I will be there when they do.

My guess is that when I start catching or finding bluegills I will begin catching bass. As of right now it’s still a waiting game.