“Blip.” A trout rises to the right.
The fly dropped softly, a foot short of the center of the concentric ripples and the krystal flash wings gleamed in the morning sunlight. There was an ever so slight pause before the nose of the Apache trout broke the surface. The ant pattern disappeared, the hook was set, and the fish danced its way to the net.
This scene played itself many times over for most of the morning. At Christmas Tree Lake on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, the Apache trout like to rise to dry flies until the sun gets too high in the sky. Around eleven, we switched things up and stripped small leeches, damsels, and nymphs off of the banks with pretty good success. As evening approached, there was another flurry of activity on the surface as trout began rising again to ants and mayflies.
Back in the Valley, the temps were well over 100 degrees, but after a light rain as we got off the water, the mountain air was crisp and clean. It’s easy to have a good day when the fish are biting and you’re hanging out with a couple of good buddies.
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So cool, used to fish that lake back in the 90’s , loved the Apache Trout. So neat to see some photo’s to bring back memories. Also liked Lee Valley for the grayling. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Brian.
I am new to flyfishing and we are planning a trip to Christmas tree lake in May. Could you tell me what setup you would recommend and retrieve style. I will be using a float tube mostly.Thanks.
I’d take a dry fly rod and a bunch of ant patterns. I’d also take a sinking line with an assortment of leech and wooly bugger patterns. If you have room, I’d also take another rod rigged up with an indicator to hang nymphs if things are slow with the other two options. I usually have all three rods rigged up so that I can quickly move from one to the other if the situation dictate. Feel free to shoot me an email if I can help out in any way. Hope that helps.
Ben
Fly fishing @the WMGF Fish Camp 5/13-15/24 on Christmas Tree Lake. Any suggestions for flies, line (sinking or weighted floating)? Are there streams or rivers near. Thank you
Don,
Nice to hear from you. I fished it from a pontoon boat and had three rods rigged up. A dry fly rod with a big foam ant, an intermediate line with a damsel fly imitation and switched to a simi-seal bugger every once in a while, and then I had an indicator rod and hung a chronomid and a blood worm pattern. Caught a lot on the dry fly rod in the morning and had to work throughout the day to pick up fish with the other setups. It’s been a number of years since I’ve been back to Christmas Tree and not sure on the current status of the fishing. Keep me posted on how you do.
Lots of small creeks and streams in the white mountains. The guys at fish camp can point you in the right direction.
Best of luck.
Ben