Heenan Lake is a small 130 acre lake that is well-known for it’s population of Lahonton cutthroat trout. Established primarily as a place to host Lahonton cutthroat broodstock for spawning, Heenan Lake also allows anglers to catch these fish in the fall from the beginning of September to the end of October. I’ve read a lot about Heenan Lake and as one of the few stillwaters in California that offers an opportunity to catch a heritage trout qualifying stillwater Lahonton cutthroat I was excited to finally be able to check it out and hopefully catch a few.
I planned my visit as a Sunday day trip which meant I had to be out on the road by 6am to hopefully get there by 9am. Heenan Lake is notorious for being crowded at times and I had my fingers crossed that it wouldn’t be this weekend. After a long drive I arrived at the lake and saw the parking lot nearly full with more people rolling in. The most watercrafts on the lake that I counted this visit was a little over twenty at its peak. Although it sounds like a ton of people on the water there was plenty of room for everyone. Most anglers were set up in one area for most of the day which allowed those covering water to get around without an issue.
Fly patterns that are said to work on Heenan Lake were simple: buggers, prince nymphs, midges, and scuds. Retrieve technique was also said to be important and from what I gathered slow retrieves and twitches were the game changers. The fishing was really slow despite ideal conditions. The water temperature read at 54.6 degrees at 10am and gradually rose to 55.5 degrees when I left around 5pm. There was some good chop on the water around noon and the barometric pressure was dropping due to an incoming cold front the following day.
Pyramid Lake was where I first experienced fishing for Lahonton cutthroat trout and over the years of visiting the big pond I’ve learned a lot about these fish behave and how to catch them. With this experience under my wading belt the fish in Heenan felt more similar to me than different. Lahonton cutthroat are notorious for turning on and off throughout the day. The grabs will usually come in waves and it’s not uncommon to see someone hook up and the person next to them hooking up simultaneously. Although that’s the good side of Lahonton cutthroats the bad is that when the bite is off the day can be super slow. This visit was one of those slow days.
I was on the water by 10am and started stripping buggers and nymphs on an intermediate line. It seemed as if 80% of the folks on the water had the same technique in mind and after an hour with no one bringing in any fish including me I decided to switch to an indicator rig. The set-up I used was a 4x level line with olive balance leech and blood midge on a tag end. I set my depth at around 6ft and would twitch and slowly retrieve my patterns to give it some action. As the day progressed I watched as a few anglers using indicators started hooking fish and was ready for my turn.
At around 12pm I watched a fellow angler a few dozen yards away hook up and net a decent size trout. I observed around me to see if I could spot any fish. Within a few minutes of searching my eyes followed three different fish as they cruised around me within 4-6ft of depth. I got my first grab and missed the hook up. This would follow three more times until I finally hooked my first fish. I netted the beauty and was relieved to have finally beaten the skunk. The bite time was between 10am to 2pm.
I throat pumped the fish for some intel and found a ton of baby damsel flies about size 16. I tied on a similar pattern to match the hatch but by then the bite had turned off. The drive home was long and tiring and I stayed awake rocking out to some classic rock at full volume. My first visit to Heenan Lake was an okay experience. It’s a fishery that I would definitely visit if I was in the area but not a place I would wake up before first light to get to to fish again.
