The Black Gnat Saga

Tuesday arrived with sunshine and blue skies as promised. I headed out to Rancho Seco Lake to try the Black Gnat that Bill Trussell (Fishing Through Life) sent me. Got out there at about 0830, wadered up, and launched the Float Tube Cumberland. A couple of guys launching a boat said that there were a couple of Largemouth Bass, next to the boat launch, that looked like they were making a nest. By the time I got over there, they were gone.


I started out on the left side of the lake with a spinning rod rigged with a mini-crawler under a bobber and just let it trail behind. I wanted to use it as a kind of “fish indicator”. I put the black gnat on my fly rod with the intermediate sinking line, the one I use in lakes. I fished it with a “let it drop” style along the weed by the shore and when it hit bottom, I gave it a couple of strips to pick it back up and let it drop again. I was targeting Crappie since there is supposed to be trophy sized ones in this lake.


About 50 feet from the dock, I got a good tug on the crawler, but by the time I picked up the rod, whatever it was, was gone. I continued around the left side through a good sized cove and back out to a point. From there I changed to a Tungsten Bead head Thinmint size 8 and flippered across the lake to the dam. I wanted to take a shot at some of the trout and maybe the deep water across the lake would produce something. They had a derby on April 2nd & 3rd so they stocked it pretty heavy.


Once I got to the dam side, I changed back to the black gnat. I wanted to give it a good try on this lake. I worked my way around what I think is the drain for the lake. It was at that moment that I found out I forgot to bring the camera.


Let me see if I can explain this drain thing. It’s about 15 feet square, sits on 4 posts about 10 feet above the water. It has steel rods running from the bottom of the platform into the water. Like something to keep debris out of the drain. OK, in amongst the bars and under the platform are a bazillion dirt bird nests. I think they are swallows of some type. The birds were feeding on some type of bug on the shore, but the closer I got to the drain, the more birds started flying back to the nests. Protection, I’m sure. I don’t know what the bug was because I only got a fleeting glimpse of one going by and you know, I’m no entomology expert by any means. The thing I did notice is that there were no fish feeding on the surface.


So I did a 405 around the drain. That’s a 360 plus another 45 to make sure I got all the way around (you know that fish hang out near structures like this) and then made my way toward the shore. I fished part of the dam and then across the weed beds on the side, back toward the launch ramp. I’m still fishless, although I did get another bump on the crawler, but again, I was too slow.


By that time, it was about Noon 30 and I threw in the towel. I gave the black gnat a good 4 hours or so and my analysis is that, since they are still stocking trout in this lake, it might be a bit too cold for Crappie to get excited about a black gnat. So I’ll wait for some warmer weather, some warmer water, and give it a shot later in the year. Maybe dabble in Bass, who knows. Crap, I’d have to change the name of this blog.


As always, thanks for stopping by. Till next time.


Mark