2011 Wellesley Lake Trip Report

The fly fishing at Wellesley Lake was as good as expected during my recent trip during the 3rd week of June.  The ice had been off for about 8 days and already the vast shoal areas were warming up to 52F to 56 F.  Perfect for chironomid hatches.  Heavy emergences provided superb pupal fishing for lake trout and lake whitefish in shallow water.  Much of our chironomid fishing was done in water less than 10 feet deep.  Lakers to 10 pounds and whitefish to 5 pounds really liked gunmetal grey chromies with maroon rib in #10 and #12’s that were suspended under strike indicators.  We also caught a lot of fish on maroon, black and green leeches on both floating lines and intermediate sinkers. 

lake trout really like chironomid pupa

Lake whitefish are also a great fish on light tackle.  They are very strong fighters and love to eat chironomid pupa, mayfly nymphs, caddis pupa, scuds and leeches in shallow water.  The water in Wellesley is very clear and there is a lot of marl covered shoals so you can stalk individual whitefish and lake trout.  I also spent some time trying to catch one of those big lake trout that reside in this lake.  That meant fishing in 50 to 70 feet of water and presenting baitfish patterns right on the bottom.  I used a droque or wind sock to allow a very slow. controlled drift of the boat and fished a Rio Deep 7 full sinking line.  I cast ahead of the drifting boat and allowed the fly line to sink to the lake bottom and then twitched the fly up off the bottom.  I got lucky and hooked and landed a nice fish of about 25 pounds.  After landing that one I hooked another one that I played for 20 minutes before the hook fell out.  I am pretty sure it was a really big fish as I never got the fish more than 10 feet off the bottom during the time I had it on.  That was an exciting afternoon.  Here is a picture of the one I did land on the Purple Clouser!!

A chunky laker that took a Purple Clouser Minnow pattern in 55 ft of water

Pike fishing was also good with all the guests that week catching and releasing a lot of Pike.  The biggest caught during our week was just under 40 inches in length.  Floating Pike lines and patterns with green, white, black and red in them all produced very aggressive strikes.  Some fish were also taken on poppers.  Our group of 8 fly fishers enjoyed a great week of fishing and all left the lodge with a lot of fishing memories.   Some of group had more memories than others because they fished well into the early morning hours each day as it did not get dark!!

Overall, a great trip to an incredibly productive fly fishery.

Cheers,

Brian