Lou took Ken (of the Mens Technical Council, Old dogs who have fished together for a couple of decades) out to Diamond Lake on Saturday. Rumors had been swirling around the shop about the ice off on Diamond and “how it’s usually pretty good after the ice off” or ” it’s always good for fly anglers at the south end”. So, after a quick call, Ken and I hit the road for Diamond. It had been a few years since I had been there and used the south end boat ramp. When we pulled in it looked like this!
Oh well, it looked like the snow melt had a ways to go for this boat launch. So, we headed north to the next ramp. We put in and joined the rest of the armada at the south end.
I started with Chironomids and a bobber. Ken (a bugger loyalist) started with the Bead Head Electric Leach. We scanned the fleet and saw nets in the water or heard “fish on!” Ken and I were beginning to have doubts. Ken was getting hits on his bugger, but not connecting. I changed to a Bead Head Electric Leach and hit a small, but mighty Diamond fish.
Ken was still getting hits and then proclaimed: “I think I have these fish figured out! I’ve lost my touch on the bugger hits, but now, I have my strikes dialed in for sure.” In a few minutes Ken began to light up the score board.
We changed buggers throughout the day using the Cascade Bugger, Carey Special, Tungsten Thin Mint, and Bead Head Electric Leach. I got to use my Sage 99 with a full sinking (clear) line and it lived up to all of it’s expectations. Ken was using my intermediate sinking line and we both felt that line was key in his success. We figured the water depth we were fishing was about 7 to 10 feet.
We enjoyed a mostly windless day at Diamond and even caught fish dragging buggers back to the ramp. All and all, Ken I left Diamond feeling very fortunate to be living where we do and enjoyed the very best of another great lake in the Oregon Cascades. LV
