Bluegill on flies 4/20

As I type, my forearms look like hairy prime rib. Saturday was cool and cloudy and not at all a nice day. I expected Sunday to be a similarly gray day. It was, however, a beautiful and sunny day. Had I known that I would have, at the least, put sunscreen on my arms, and probably worn long sleeves.

Sunday morning I went on my first float-tube fishing trip. The target was the large bluegill and large mouth bass that inhabit Upper Otay Lake. Scott Donaghe and I have been waiting for the water to warm up a little and for the discoloration to settle since our attempt in February (see the entry from 2/16). For the last couple of weeks we've been getting reports of some good numbers on bluegill, with the occasional large mouth thrown in.

Scott offered me his old float tube and fins, and we agreed to meet at his house around 8 a.m. I stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and an old fashioned, my typical pre-fishing breakfast. When I got to Scott's all the stuff was out by his truck, and after loading up, getting Scott a breakfast burrito, and suiting up, we were on the water by 8:30.

Upper Otay Lake is a pretty secluded and small lake in eastern Chula Vista. There are very few houses visible and those that are are expensive, and at least attractive. There are probably 6 or fewer visible homes. There are a good amount of eucalyptus trees around, and some sage brush. The lake itself is largely surrounded by tullies. All of these things make it pretty difficult to fish from shore, but makes Upper Otay a spectacular place to fish from a tube. The relative seclusion of the lake draws a large variety of bird life, terns, great blue herons, what was either a green heron or night heron, red-winged blackbirds, scaups and mallards, as well as the normal ravens, hawks, and the occasional osprey. Just the sounds of the different birds can be hypnotic, and really make for an excellent outdoors experience.

There were probably 6 or so other tubers visible around the lake, some were fly fishermen, and some were using regular bass gear. There were also a few shore fisherman when we first got there. It was already sunny enough that I wasn't wearing the light pullover I'd planned on, leaving my arms bare. We worked clockwise from the parking lot, and worked the tullies and other structure.

Scott picked up a nice bluegill in a little inlet, he said the fish hit is fly on the drop, he pulled taught when his lined jumped...


We eventually ran into a few friends; Tom, Larry, and Craig, and Kim was around somewhere, but I never saw her. We all hung around and fished and chatted, before Scott and I resumed working around the lake. It was couple of hours or hard work before I finally landed my first largemouth bass on a fly rod. Certainly not huge, but welcome regardless...


Not much of a fight, but I was using my newish 8 foot 4 weight trout rod, and at least that added some sport.

We worked our way up to the opposite end of the lake from where we launched, which I guess would be the north end. The bird and wildlife activity up there was amazing. Two very large box turtles were sunning on logs while ravens and red wing blackbirds fought loud aerial battles over territorial claims. Occasionally a well-camouflaged Blue Heron would dart its head into the water for its lunch.

Working our way back towards the launch site I saw a shaded section guarded by two branches that protruded into the water. I figured if there weren't fish there, then I'd give up fishing. I made a few casts, careful not to let my woolly bugger sink to far, as there was quite a tangle in there. On my third or fourth cast, I was counting the fly down, and on my first quick, short strip I felt the tug we fisherman live for. I started kicking backwards while I stripped the fish in to keep it out of the tangle. I was using 6x tippet and any contact with the branches would likely have got that fish off. I was hoping for a bluegill, as that would have been my second new fly fishing species for the day. Finally the fish came to color, and I could see it was a nice bluegill. I got it onto the apron of the tube and snapped a few pics. It turned out to be around eleven inches. Not bad for my first fly gillie.


We were pretty well past the time Scott told the Mrs. we'd be off the water so we picked up our progress a little. I would have stayed all day, I was loving it. Scott picked up another gillie near where I'd got mine.


After that it was pretty much a straight kick back to the parking lot, and the process of packing up. For a paltry 4 fish between us, it was an excellent day on the water. That evening, with Pacifico in hand, I began searching eBay and Craig's List for deals on tubes.