Included in your fishing package is a full day of fishing at beautiful Lake Christine.

Not included in your fishing package at Lake Christine are float tubes and fins, items of a personal nature, food and drinks, fishing supplies, and a CA fishing license.

Non-angling companions are welcome and can spend the day hiking the property and checking out the beauty of the surrounding area.

March to early May:
Just downstream of Rock Creek Lake, the seasonal cycles at Lake Christine mirror Rock Creek Lake. Cold and sometimes discolored water is the norm for the early part of the season. You can be fishing in rain and occasionally snow, or in beautiful sunny weather. It will be cold to cool at night and you may need to dress warmly during the day, although sometimes all you will need is a light shirt, and this can be especially true as you get into late April and May. Usually hatches, especially in the first month or two, will be few and far from prolific. None of this means that the fishing will be poor; on the contrary, some of the best days of the season come in these early months. The fish are coming off of a long, cold winter and are ready to take on some calories. They are hungry, and this hunger can make them gullible at times, enough to make even novice anglers feel like a pro. They can be tough to fool at times as well, and knowing a few techniques for lake fishing will really pay off then.

March will mean off colored, cold water and you usually won't see as many rising fish. However, they will slam those streamer type flies so you will want to have a good supply of various buggers and leech patterns. The larger sizes (#6-#8) can work at this time, but be sure to have some of the smaller patterns as well. Midges seem to be a factor every month of the season so having midge nymphs, emergers and some dries will be necessary. Something to remember is that when you are faced with cold water situations a slow to slower retrieve can be the ticket. That can be true when using these streamers and also with some nymphs. You can get away with heavier tippets in off colored water, but keep that slow retrieve on the back of your mind.

By late April and May the Callibaetis mayflies will begin to hatch, so you will want dries, nymphs and emergers of that fly. Crippled patterns seem to out fish dries by quite a good margin. There can also be other mayfly species hatching and usually these will be small (#16-#18) and light yellow, tan or sulfur in color. There is one terrestrial insect event you could see in May and that is an ant or termite flight. You will know it is going on because every fish in the lake will be working the surface and you will catch more trout during the ant flight than at any other time on the lake. Carry winged ant patterns in May!

June through August:
Summer is always associated with warm to hot weather which means light weight clothing while on the water and maybe a warm jacket or shirt for the evenings, which are usually cool due to the 3200 ft elevation the lake sits at. This warmer weather also means that every kind of insect in the lake and around the lake is becoming active. June is considered Callibaetis month in this country, but you will also see other mayflies, caddisflies, midges, dragonflies, damselflies and the terrestrials (beetles and ants) throughout the summer season.

June and a good part of July can bring an amazing cast of insects doing their thing at Lake Christine. We left off with a tip on the early season about always carrying winged ant patterns and that continues for the month of June as well. We have found that cripple patterns are the best dry fly pattern for imitating the callibaetis hatch. Midges are active every day of this season and here is another tip- watch carefully during this hatch and you will see that the trout are most likely taking the midge before it comes to the top of the water. They will almost always eat the midge when it is stuck in the bottom of the surface film (meniscus) and will ignore anything sitting on top of it. Fishing mayflies and caddisflies in the surface film (using cripples or emergers) can sometimes mean the difference between successful takes and refusals. Streamer type flies will work, especially those that mimic damsel nymphs, but the smaller patterns seem to work best. This season is terrestrial time and you will want to have beetle and ant patterns in your fly box. Beetles in size 14 and ants in size 16-18 seem to be the most productive. These patterns will take fish anywhere on the lake, but all terrestrial fishermen know that these insects seem to like to fall off of trees and bushes that hang out over the water- enough said! One last thing you might keep in mind is to use a loop knot to your flies when lake fishing, since it will help keep the fly looking natural and you can use a size larger tippet.

September through November:
All the information above about summer time fishing will hold true for a good part of the fall season. As the nights get colder and colder the hatches will get fewer and fewer, with the exception of the midges. They seem to hatch out everyday, sometimes for just a bit and sometimes off and on all day. Callibaetis will provide some action much of this season, but the flies themselves will be a size or two smaller than the June variety. Terrestrials will work most of the fall, especially in anD around the lake side willows. During the first part of this season you can almost always get action early and late in the day. However, as the colder weather comes you will find that midday fishing is great.

Lake Christine can now be fished year round and is a great alternative when the streams are blown. Although you will have to watch for snow, the lake rarely freezes and snow lingers rarely. Fish will congregate near the creek entrance keying on food being introduced into the lake. On cloudy days and in low light in the mornings and evenings watch for fish cruising the shallows anywhere in the lake looking for any unsuspecting insects in the water column. Dry-dropper midge setups are effective at this time, and another effective technique is to strip Wooly Buggers.

Another staple tactic is fishing a Balanced Leech, stripped on an I-Line, or suspended under an indicator.