Fly Fishing Getaway

There’s a secluded 10-acre reservoir High in the Sierras stocked with hundreds of Rainbow Trout.

Just six miles north of Lake Tahoe, Sawmill Lake is surrounded by high country Ponderosa Pine forest on a private resort, but allows limited fly fishing for a fee. When I say limited, I mean limited.

Reservations (half-day or full-day) are are required and only four fly rods are allowed in the water at a time. That and the fact that only catch and release fishing is permitted should help insure the good fishing for a very long time.

Fly fishing instruction and Guiding are available at a little higher fee.

Besides hundreds of bright, fighting rainbow trout, the lake was stocked several years ago with Brown Trout fingerlings. These have now reached 10 to 12 inches and are also caught frequently.

Sawmill has a tremendous hatch of callibaetis mayflies and midges, so you’ll want imitations for these insects in all of the stages of emergence. And don’t overlook terrestrial patterns such as ants, beetles and grasshoppers. Streamers on a sinking line can also provide some exceptional fishing.

For the most success, the angler should have a good variety of lines. As on any lake, both floating and sinking lines will be helpful depending on the time of the year.

A float-tube or pontoon boat will enable you to fish the entire lake, or you can stalk the fish from the shoreline - particularly when the callibaetis are emerging. This is as exciting as it can get as you sight some truly large fish.

Get the details from Northstar at Tahoe. Because it is a full-fledged resort, there’s plenty of activity for the rest of the family too, so you can click around to find out about hiking trails, horseback riding, etc.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 31st, 2005 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Fly Fishing Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.