My Paulina Lake report will be from an email our casting instructor Doug sent me:
Quoting the late John Denver, ” Some days are diamonds; some days are stones.” Which would it be was the thought that floated through our rains as we drove downhill to the Little Crater put in yesterday morning. A chilly wind had already come up at 8:30 AM when we cleared the launch. With the 10-15 mph wind there were no paddle boarders or kayakers on the lake. No rises on the choppy surface and no bugs flying past in the wind. In fact no other fly anglers to be seen as we motored clock-wise around the shoreline looking for an area calm enough to get line in the water. We swung around past the group campsite (no one on the beach) and just past the big Willow tree that overhangs the water, we found some calmer water within about 40 feet of the shoreline. It was looking like today just might be one of those “stone” days.

With no surface action, I decided to try a balanced leech under an indicator: “Smart move,” I thought. Bob – ever the optimist – tied a grass hopper his #5 floating line. A GRASS HOPPER! Yeah, good luck with at, Dreamer! On his third cast into the shallows, there came a bulge at the surface. a monster head erupted and crushed his hopper. Fish On! After several magazine-style aerials followed by deep dives, a stunning 5-lb rainbow slipped into my boat net. Damn! 20+ inches (we guesstimate 22″). Turns out, our “stone” had had some real sparkle – kinda like a diamond.

Bob’s first ginormous Rainbow was just the beginning  of an entire “Diamond Day.” As we crawled counter-clockwise along the lees shore casting our hoppers right into shore and out to the drop-off, action never stopped. Past the main boat ramp, we landed several nice fish in water so shallow, it seemed we could have waded ashore for a beer at the lodge (but we too busy catching fish, so we took a pass). 

After we took a 10-minute break to woof down lunch, the excitement continued as we inched along the north shore toward the slide – again casting into the shallows and out over the drop-offs: My eye caught a swirl in the shadows just a few inches from a shore-side log. I made the 45-ft cast: Another swirl… and a miss. I cast again. Another swirl but no take. A third cast and a third swirl. But this time deep bend was imparted in my #5 Z-Axis rod and the fish headed for deep water. An epic battle ensued and I was only hoping my 4X fluoro tippet would hold. It did and fifteen minutes later another 5 lb trout slipped into my  boat net: this one a 22″ brown beauty. Diamonds everywhere!

Our day on Paulina Lake yesterday turned out to be one of the most spectacular diamond days of trout fishing either of could recall: 30+ trout to the net. And that’s not counting all the LDR’s (Long Distance Releases) and missed takes when we took our eye off the fly. All were on dries. In fact, all on terrestrials. In fact, all but two on hoppers (the other two were on beetles).  

Some days are diamonds and some days are stone. You just gotta get out on the water to find out which one your day will be. That’s the magic of fly fishing!