Fly Fishing Insider Newsletter featuring Native Fish

Mann Lake is located in South Eastern Oregon about 80 miles south of the town of Burns in sage covered high elevation desert. This lake offers spectacular early season fishing in a spectacular setting which is back-dropped by the Steens Mountain escarpment. However be aware that there are some serious travel and camping considerations. Be prepared for extreme conditions. Be sure to carry a good spare, jack & tools.

Mann Lake is the place they were talking about when it was said, "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. It will change." This is particularly true during early spring when the fishing is best. On each multi-day trip we have languished in idyllic warmth of spring sunshine and also suffered the icy blasts of seeming-to-never-end screaming winds. The weather is always shifting and adding drama to the surreal landscape.

One thing is for certain. You are going to catch some trout. Some days are easier than others, but very few days will be empty. When the weather is cold there is no reason to get up early. The best bight will be during peak water temperature times in the middle of the day. Go ahead sleep in. Eat a late breakfast...but keep a good eye on anyone fishing to see if they're getting any action. When the weather is warm, be fishing at dawn. Some days the bight can last all day. Most days one certain fly pattern will out produce all others. Observation and luck are usually the keys.

Mann Lake is full of Lahontan Cutthroat trout. These fish have adapted to the extremes of the Great Basin from the times when it was a vast inland sea. Pyramid and Walker Lakes in Nevada are the only remnants of Lake Lahontan, which at its peak 25,000 years ago, drained nearly 45,000 square miles. The remaining lakes are very alkaline to very saline in nature. This sub-specie of cutthroat is the only salmonid which can survive in many of the most alkaline lakes of the west.
In the past they grew to huge sizes. Forty-one pounds is the world record.

Mann Lake is the Oregon State repository of Lahontan Cutthroat genetics. This is where all of the states brood stock are raised. You are actually fishing in the rearing pond.
The majority of the trout caught from Mann Lake are 18"-19", the largest seen in recent years is 24".

Best: April - June but also fishes well in the fall

Natural Lake: fairly stable water level

Elevation: 4150'

Area: 276 acres max.

Depth: 14' max.

Fish species: Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

Regulations:
- artificial flies & lures only
- limit 2 fish
- motors allowed
- speed limit controlled
- open year round

Hatches:
Man Lake has the full compliment of insect hatches that you will find in most desert lakes. Chironomids, Calibaetis May Flies, Damsel flies and dragon flies abound. Leeches and scuds are also prominent.

How to get there from The Fly Fishing Shop:
Take Hwy 26 to Bend, OR
at Bend turn east on Hwy 20 drive to Burns, OR
at Burns turn south-east on Hwy 70 drive to Follyfarm
turn south at the sign to Fields, OR.

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RETURN OF THE SPEY
(Part-2 of a three part series. Click here for part one.)
by Mark Bachmann
Who first fished with a two-hand fly rod? Why did they do so?
I prefer to think it is a sport born of love on a river bank...
so it should be...so it is a form of love...of rivers.

Angling is a game that can take on many forms. It can become a game of killing or a search for personal excellence within the angler. A game of traditional form is often judged most pure. Angling with a two handed fly rod is one of those nearly forgotten but

purely traditional games; of gentry, even royalty. No purer form of fly angling exists.

The origins of fly fishing are lost in the dust of several hundred generations of anglers....the inventors names are scattered by the winds. The first fishing rod was actually a fishing pole. A line tied to the end of it. The line was slightly shorter than the pole. The longer the pole the further one could cast. Many poles required the use of both hands. Then someone figured that you could cast a lightweight lure with a heavy line. Wooden poles became wooden fly rods. Two hand

fly rods were at the birth of our sport. No one knows who invented fly fishing. The oldest confirmed records are from very early bronze age China.

	Some Macedonian Greeks may have been fly fishing during the rein of Alexander the Great. It is likely that Celtic tribes fly fished before the Roman conquest of northern Europe. Whether fly fishing was transported across Eurasia along trade routes or evolved in different places independently is unknown.
In China fly fishing was regarded as a contemplative sport 4000 years ago.

One can only imagine how it might have been in those distant times:

It is the golden age of the great Shang Dynasty. There is peace in the Celestial Kingdom. Pu Ho and Laing have stolen away from the prying eyes of the village elders. Even though they have not yet officially come of age they are secretly in love. They can only be gone for short periods of time without being discovered. Through a life time of living in the same village they have established certain rendezvous....secret places where

they can meet and express their love to each other.

They pick their hiding places as children do; places that adults would forget. There is the cave in the lime stone cliff, the soft moss under the fallen tree....best loved is the island in the bamboo thicket which borders the river Dabie Shan.

Pu Ho often comes here alone and fishes for the golden carp which feed in the weedy shallow water between the bamboo trees.
Today the fishing was so good he ran out of bait.
Laing wears a garland of feathers in her hair.

She embraces Pu Ho and kisses him on the lips. They make love in the warm sand. A feather falls from her hair and with the inspiration of after-glow Po Hu ties it to his hook with a strand of her shiny black hair.

And thus the game of fly fishing was born of innocence and love....
a prologue to the centuries that would follow.
To be continued as a work in progress...

If you would like to read past "Insiders", click Archives

Your commentary is always welcome. Drop us a line: flyfish@flyfishusa.com

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