Lake Englebright is one of the few lakes within 30 minutes drive of my location. I’ve fished it once in the past during the spring and actually managed to catch two fish, a rainbow trout and a spotted bass. I’ve been itching to get out onto some stillwater and decided to check out Lake Englebright again to see if I could get the winter float and fly technique to work for me.
Lake Englebright is a very steep lake that is typically kept full. There is no room for wading therefore a boat is the best method to fish this lake successfully. I was debating between using my float tube or kayak and ultimately chose the kayak again because the float tube would only be able to get me out so far. It would be too dangerous to kick all the way out to where I wanted to be and back within the time frame I wanted to fish. I also needed to find the fish and being limited to fishing between the two boat launches would be a waste of $5 parking.
It’s been awhile since I’ve used my Intex Challenger K1 inflatable kayak. The last time I used this kayak I had accidently put a hole in it while bringing it back the bank during my trip to Lake Crowley; needless to say I will definitely be more careful with this one. It took me about 30 minutes to completely rig up and though my confidence was a bit shaken from having my last kayak fail I quickly regained it all back once I was out on the water.
I brought my cheapo fish finder with me to try and help me find the correct fishing depth. Most of the time the ideal fly fishing depths between 10′ – 15′ were right off the bank. All the possible “fish” the finder mapped where way deep near the bottom. The water was also very clear and I estimated I could probably see about 10′ into the water. Although this helped me identify structure, weed beds, etc it most likely made the fish more spooky. It was going to be a tough day.
I initially worked the float and fly around a few steep drop offs hoping that I would find suspended spotted bass. After a few hours went by with no grabs I switched to a type 6 full sinking line stripping flies. Despite covering quite a bit of water neither of these techniques worked. Towards the end of the day I though perhaps trolling would be the best way to approach these slow winter fishing conditions. I figured with a full sinking line I could probably let out a bit of line and slowly troll around while enjoying some paddling.
I finally got my first grab while floating around one of the coves on the northern end however as soon as I went to set the hook the fish was already gone. Maybe having the fly rod between my legs wasn’t the best way to do this whole trolling thing. Unfortunately I didn’t get any grabs the rest of the day. I’m currently working on ideas on how to become more efficient and effective on the kayak the next time I return to Lake Englebright. I may wait until the spring to try again after reading that the big pen grown rainbows that the marina raises are released during that time. The one good thing about fishing from a kayak is that even if you don’t catch a single fish the paddling and floating is always fun.
I fished the Yuba before the hurricane storm and found a bunch of nice fish in a run that I’ve never fished before. Hopefully we get some much needed rain and snow within the next few days.
