Still water/Lake fly fishing--a confession

First thing I would/will do is strip in a big black woolly bugger. Most of my fish at Spinney has been on woolly buggers. I use a lot of sinking lines too (out of a float tube). John

From shore do you use the sinking line?

I usually start with a floating line from shore and a standard woolly bugger. If that's not working then I go to a beadhead or conehead variety. If the water is deep enough I go to slow sinking lines. The water is not that deep in most places you will wade so you won't have to go too deep to get to the bottom. If you fish off the dam, it will, of course, be quite deep. We almost always start fishing off the shore at the first parking lot - either wading or tubing. There is a good chance the fish will be shallow. Using other standard nymphs can be good too. If you're there early in the morning (with freezing hands), it's probably easiest just to use a woolly bugger and "mindlessly" strip it in. Don't be surprised if you get takes from pike as well. John

If you are fishing wet, vary your retrieve. Try Fast, try slow, try stripping in a lot of line at a time, try stripping in just a little line at a time. You'll start catching fishing and noticing a trend for the condistions.

Think of the fly as you are retrieving it and what you are trying to do. Woolly Bugger - work that maribou tail by stripping a little at a time. Fishing with a streamer, try stripping in a lot at a time. Vary the speed on both.

I would use a sink tip from shore as opposed to a full sinking line (if you have a sink tip). If you don't have a sink tip, not a disaster.

If you are fishing dry, cast out, let it sit, twitch it a little, let it sit. Twitch it more. Also, don't be afraid to strip it in like a wet. A dry turned terrestrial works well (you could fish a renegade dry for a little bit, then strip it in and fish it wet).

All in all - have fun!

I think the key here is to vary your retrieve and try several things prior to switching flies. It seems that whenever I flyfish a lake, they want a different retrieve than what they did the time before.

Big thing is have fun - try a lot of different things until you find what works!

I have been at Spinney each day since it opened. Based on what I saw and my very limited flyfishing experience, this is what I've seen since Wednesday.
On Wed. in the area I was fishing, most of the trout I saw caught on flies were either on Pheasant tails, hares ears, and egg patterns. Yesterday, the peach egg was the best bait, and I caught 4 up to 18" in about 1/2 hour, of flycasting. When the wind gets up, Im not good enough to flyfish, so I switch to spin.
I, and most of the people I saw, were fishing a flosting line with about 9' of leader plus the dropper. I use a #4 or 5 lead up about 1/2 way between my upper fly and the dropper.
Just let the wind take it has worked for me.
I also had an 18" bow on Wed. on my upper fly, a copper john about size 16.
Hope this helps and tight lines.