Slaying lake fish with a muddler - who'd of thunk?

"What in the world are you using?" I asked my fishing partner the late Bill Alspach.

"One of your patterns," was all he would say.

The only thing I could say is that every time I looked at him he had a fish on. I was using the old standard wooly bugger and catching fish, but not as many as my friend.

We were fishing for Lahontan cutthroat trout at Lake Lenore in central Washington. The wind always blows across the lake in the afternoon, so we were trying to get some fish before the wind blew us off the lake.

Eventually, I couldn't take not knowing and paddled over to Alspach's float tube.

"OK smarty, which one of my patterns are you using?"

I watched as he removed a bloody muddler from the mouth of a large Lahontan and released it back to the water. I had never used a bloody muddler in a lake. In fact, I had never even considered using it in a lake.

Alspach was using a fast sink, 15-foot sink tip with a very short leader, maybe 3 or 4 feet long. He told me he often used the muddler in lakes. The fast-sinking tip gets the line down, and the short leader lets the fly float slightly above the bottom.

Well I couldn't argue with success, so I went to shore, walked back to my pickup truck and changed my line and leader. I caught a few fish before the wind blew us off the lake. Since then, I have tried Alspach's method in several lakes around our area and also in British Columbia, Canada. I have no idea what aquatic insect the bloody muddler represents down that deep, but who cares? It works.

I tried this combination the last time I fished in Montana on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. The only change I had to make was to switch from a fast sink line to a intermediate-sink tip. The lake was far too shallow for a fast-sinking tip. There was a heavy damsel hatch happening, so I knew what the fish were taking the bloody muddler for.

I never would have even tried to fish a lake with a muddler if I hadn't seen Alspach do it successfully. I wish I knew if someone showed him that method or if he figured it out on his own. Alspach was a good friend, and one of the best fly casters with a single-handed rod I have ever seen.

The next time you find yourself fishing Lake Lenore or some other lake, give this method and pattern a try. It might just work as well for you as it did for Alspach. I know you will have a very good time, and maybe one of your fishing friends will come to you and ask what you are using.

LAST LINES

"I now believe that fishing is far more important than the fish."

- Arnold Gingrich

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Hyatt is an avid fly tier who lives in Lewiston. He can be contacted at city@lmtribune.com.