Maligne July Long
 

Saturday was the worst for weather.
Sunday, not so! Lots of fish jumping everywhere in the morning...means "hatch on!"

Got to experience the best chironmid hatch I've fished in. You didn't need to throat sample the fish. You could just turn them upside down, mouth facing water, and watch the chironies trickle out. Yeah, crazy hatch!

It was easy to dial it in. Not so easy was getting them to bite. I suspect there were literally so many chironmids down below that it just takes a lot of time for the trout to get to your offering. I quickly learned that slow strips was the key to constant success. Got to give that hook life to get any attention.

Caught a lot of nice bows and brookies. Somewhere around the 60-70 mark for the day. Lots of other anglers tried but didn't hook up. They were not moving their lines at all...so I pieced together my theory.

One butt clown and his buddy show up and anchor 40-50 feet in front of me...in my casting lane. His buddy also deployed an underwater mobile dive camera. It sounds like they visually confirmed the chironimid fest down below. Didn't matter. Buddy driving the boat couldn't case more than 20 feet, huge bobber too, and whacked his buddy hard with in the face on one of his crappy casts. They caught nothing while I anchored up further away and slammed fish after fish. Karma... :)

Despite that one annoyance, awesome day and flat calm all day long. One of those days you just marvel at and appreciate.

Nice hard fighting bows
https://i.postimg.cc/DzkPq6Lg/DSCF1272.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/GmZqXdwv/DSCF1276.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/50mg9zHm/DSCF1279.jpg

Flat all day
https://i.postimg.cc/C10JV7K1/DSCF1280.jpg

Nice looking bows. If you match the hatch on Maligne it can be no-stop action for hours. Been lucky a few times with the hatch on that lake and it was spectacular. Hook-ups every few minutes.

Very jealous as a trip out to Maligne doesn't look like it will make it on my hit list this year. But man do I love chironomid fishing. Always reminds me when I was a kid fishing off the dock for Perch with a bobber and a dew worm. Just a little more sophisticated.

Black and red snocones over mud bottoms work for me in the deeper waters (20+ fow) for those Maligne beauties, but this weird little concoction of mine works in the shallows over the weedbeds.


https://live.staticflickr.com/871/40...8345b8b3_k.jpgP3170010 by Andrew Whittick, on Flickr

Nice tie! UV resin?

Yup. And I find that the red hooks out fish the usual type.

Thanks for sharing. Its a terrific lake.

What sizes do you normally use?