Of all the Rainbow and Redband Trout varieties in the United States, the Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout has been the most daunting to catch. There are three primary factors why, first is that to catch them with a fly there are two short windows when these trout are shallow enough; in the spring and fall. This alone makes planning any trips more limiting. Next is the size of Eagle Lake, which is the second largest natural lake in California and is known for its strong winds. The final thing is just simply that it is in a lake, which I fish way less than streams and thus feel much less proficient at fishing than streams.
Back in October of 2019, I had the opportunity to fish Eagle Lake, but was unfortunately unsuccessful at catching an Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout (see here). As this was one of my last Rainbow/ Redband Trout subspecies to catch failing to catch one was definitely a disappointment and I had hoped to make another trip down to the lake last spring. However, the pandemic made those plans fall though and my schedule during the fall didn’t allow a trip either. This year though, the stars aligned and I had an extended weekend come up where I could break away for four days to try to again. Add to that when I mentioned that I was planning the trip to my neighbor Dyllon he said he could join as well and with that plans were set!
Friday: June 4th 2021: After tying flies every spare moment for the the previous few weeks, it was finally time to hit the road. Our plan for the trip evolved from just going after the Eagle Lake Rainbow, to also chasing down a few varieties of Redbands as well, considering that the lake treated us well. On the morning of the trip, Dyllon and I planned on departing at 4:00 AM. However, upon getting out to the car we noticed that there had been a neighborhood wide egging overnight, so first we had to clean out cars off, which cost us a half hour. Great way to kick things off...
Once we finally hit the road, our plan was to drive straight to a creek in the Klamath Basin to try to catch some Redbands, prior to heading to Eagle Lake. A study that was published in 2009 indicated that the Redbands associated with Klamath Lake were genetically distinct on a subspecies level, making this fish a priority for me. However, this Redband outing would have to be short, as we were on a timeline and had to make it to the marina at Eagle Lake before 6:00 PM to reserve our rental boat for the next day. Luckily, the drive down to the creek was a smooth 6 hours with no traffic and not long after one quick stop for gas and we were at our first fishing spot.
I had put quite a bit of research into the streams to fish on this trip, and now that we were on the water we would find out if it paid off or not. This stream was a classic cascading mountain creek with lots of pockets and pools. However, despite looking like good water, the first couple holes didn’t show any signs of life. That changed in the next hole upstream where I managed to rise a small trout and after a few more casts I caught a little Redband and we were on the board.
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| The stream |
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| A beautiful native Klamath Lake Redband |
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| A little Brookie |
As we moved upstream and away from the road, the water and the fishing both improved, with trout holding in pretty much every likely spot. This included some Brook Trout, which I none of my research had indicated were in this stream. However, the majority of the fish were vividly colored Redbands and after a couple of hours we had caught at least a dozen trout and decided it was time to make the rest of the 4 hour drive to Eagle Lake.
We made it to the marina with an hour to spare, got our rental boat reservation squared away, then headed back over to the campground and got our camp set up. As it turned out, another buddy of mine and native trout enthusiast Steve had been out on the lake earlier in the day and was able to swing by our camp to say hello. We spent a good hour talking native trout and Steve gave a report and some pointers on where he had luck as he had gotten a beautiful 5lb Eagle Lake Rainbow that morning. After Steve headed out and we had a quick dinner and Dyllon and I got a few quick fruitless casts in on the lake before turning in with high hopes for the morning.
Saturday: June 5th 2021: We were up before the sun to make it to the marina by 5:15 AM to get our boat. Luckily the lake was glassy calm and we decided to start out trolling flies on sink tips with our 6WT rods until we found the fish. As we moved out from the marina, the boat in front of us got a fish, but otherwise we saw no sign of fish until we came close to a steep stretch of shore and started to see fish rising. As we passed a point, finally I got a solid grab and was hooked into a nice fish. This was a strong fish and made several blistering runs and also charged the boat multiple times making me scramble to keep up. However, after a few minutes I eased the fish into the net and I finally had caught an Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout and a beautiful 3-4lb perhaps 20” fish at that!
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| A calm Eagle Lake morning |
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| My first Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout |
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| My box full of streamers for Eagle Lake |
As trolling had worked once, we made another pass through the same area and right where I had hooked into the last fish, I hooked into another one. The fight was almost identical, but unfortunately as the fish neared the boat, the hook popped out. After two more passes, we only had one more short strike and as we didn’t see anyone else hooking into fish, but there were still risers, we decided to change tactics. There were Callibaetis mayflies coming off so Dyllon decided to try a dry fly, while I put on a double Chironomid rig.
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| Time to change things up |
After fifteen or twenty minutes with no action, Dyllon asked if we should try trolling again or keep with chironomids? As if on queue, my indicator shot down and I responded chironomids. This fish was a bit smaller than the first one, but as my chironomid rig was on my 4WT it still put up one heck of a fight. Luckily this time my hook held and I managed to land it.
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| Another Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout |
Not long after, I managed to get another, fish on the chironomid rig, which inspired Dyllon to change over his dry fly set up, which had not gotten any attention yet. Over the next half hour, we both had a couple hook ups, but lost our fish. Then the infamous Eagle Lake wind kicked up and we had to head back to the marina as we did not want to risk getting swamped.
After turning the boat back in and grabbing a quick lunch, we decided to head up to the headwaters of Pine Creek the main tributary to Eagle Lake to see if we could find any fish up there while we waited out the wind. Unfortunately, the drought had not been kind to Pine Creek and what we found was barely a trickle. We probably should have checked further upstream, but we saw no sign of life here so we decided that we would head back to camp and see if the wind at the lake had calmed down at all.
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| Upper Pine Creek |
After grabbing a quick early dinner at camp, Dyllon and I decided to brave the wind and try the lake from shore in the area where we had found fish in the boat during the morning. The beach we were fishing faced right into the wind and was being lashed by 2-3 foot waves, definitely challenging conditions, but we were able to cast so we decided it was worth a try. This time it was Dyllon's turn to get into the fish and a small scud under and chironomid soon produced at solid fish. The Rainbow gave Dyllon a good battle before he brought the exceptional fish to the net.
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| Dyllon's Eagle Lake Rainbow |
Before it was time to turn in, Dyllon got one additional Rainbow and lost another amid the surf. However, the persistent wind and fading daylight finally forced us off the water and it was time to head back to camp. It had been a great day on the lake and with both of us having caught some truly beautiful Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout, and with our success we could go ahead with our plans to chase down some Redbands in the morning.
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| Sunset on the lake |
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