Luk Lake

I made it out with the Gold Country Fly Fishers to a club outing to Clear Creek Sports Club which is affiliated with the Rolling Hills Casino just outside of Corning. Luk Lake is a 65 acre +/- lake where in the spring you can catch bass, sunfish and rainbow trout. It is a pay for play lake that can be booked through The Fly Shop in Redding. The lake’s varied shoreline is lined with vegetation and flanked by Central Valley habitat. Its low-elevation location keeps the lake waters (and outside air temperatures) moderate and comfortable throughout the winter and spring, providing ideal habitat for rainbow trout until the water temperatures grow too warm in the summertime.

We were there for two days with the first day raining pretty hard and the wind blowing. We hung around hoping for the front to pass by and a few brave souls eventually attempted to fish the lake at about 1:30 or so. The rain had let up but the wind was howling. Not the best conditions for fishing but it was better than hanging out and looking through the windows. The lake has a varied shoreline with some large willows and cottonwoods and if you could just kick your pontoon boat to the lee side of them it wasn't too bad. The lake has a varied depth from about 4 to 5 feet in some areas to a deeper section that runs about 15 to 18 feet. This is where the rainbows hang out. I started out with an intermediate line with a Jay Fairs Olive Wiggletail but didn't have any luck. I was fishing in about 6 to 8 feet among the weed beds not willing to brave the full brunt of the wind. The wind started to calm down and I decided to kick out into the deeper section of the lake and switched to a type 3 full sink line with a black and turquoise bugger. I hooked into a nice rainbow once I figured out how to manage the wind. I fished in earnest from about 2:30 to 5:30 and picked up about 5 rainbows and one sunfish. The rainbows all went from about 19 inches to about 21 inches and were healthy and fat. They also had a lot of spunk and fought hard.

The plan was to head over to the Rolling Hills Casino for dinner at 6:30 or so. I gathered up my gear and called it a day. At about 7:00 the clouds cleared and the sun started poking through and the wind completely died. I thought maybe I should cancel dinner and get back out there rather than spend time with the guys. It was a tough choice but I decided to hang with the boys and give the fish a rest. There's always tomorrow. The weather was supposed to be improving.

I woke up early the next morning and made it out to the lake by about 6:30. There was a light breeze and it looked to be a really nice day. I was there by myself and could see fish working midges in the deeper area of the lake.


I used the oars on my pontoon boat and rowed across the lake to the deeper section of the lake. The fish were tailing going after midges with just their dorsal fin and tails coming out of the water. No heads. I was rigged up with my full sink line and the same bugger that I was using the day before and I'd cast it in front of a tailing fish and start stripping. I picked up a number of fish doing this.



I had a great time with all the GCFF members and caught my fair share of fat and sassy rainbows. I am looking forward to spending more time in my pontoon boat exploring other Northern California Stillwaters.

I'll keep you posted!