Boyd Aigner's Chopaka May

Chopaka May

Hook: #14 Dry Fly
Tail: moose body
Abdomen: Olive Grey Superfine dubbing
Wing: single clump of deer hair, tied upright
Hackle: Dun, clipped across the bottom

This classic Northwest stillwater pattern was created by Boyd Aigner. Clipping the bottom of the hackle even with the hook point allows the fly to land upright on a calm lake surface. According to the 1986 edition of Flies of the Northwest the Chopaka May "provides a very natural silhouette. The take is slow and unhurried."
Flytimes has fished Chopaka Lake at least once a year but is going to skip this North Central Washington lake this year. Chopaka suffered a severe winter kill last year and encroachment from illegally stocked smallmouth bass has also taken its toll on the quality of this fishery. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) has scheduled the lake for rotenone treatment this coming fall. Flytimes is an advocate of the plan to rehabilitate Chopaka Lake but would like to see it executed sooner rather than later.
Flytimes Logic: The fishing was bad last season and will be bad again this season. Ergo, WDFW might as well treat the lake this spring, giving the newly planted trout a full summer to grow, providing a quality fishery no later than springtime in '08.

Edit: This just in from Bob Jateff, District Six Fish Biologist, WDFW.
"Our plans are to do the rehab in the fall of 2007, but I do agree with you that spring would be better. Unfortunately, it takes approximately one year from the time that you decide to do a rehab until the time you actually complete the treatment. This is due to the Department of Ecology's regulations that we must follow very closely. That still doesn't mean that I can't try to move it up a bit, it's just that I doubt if it would be much before September before we get the okay."

Chopaka. May, '06

Nobody on the lake was catching fish. Rednecks, congressmen, hippies and queens threw ants, stripped leaches, dragged scuds and stared at chironomid suspending indicators to no avail. Lots of folks there but none of 'em were into fish.
There were more rumors than mayflies, no hatch but lots of excuses. The Broken Dam conspiracy was popular. Bass fisherman were blamed for poisoning the lake. Some saw signs of a fish kill. To me it was obvious that the fish were feeding on mormon crickets under the light of the full moon.
The fishing was bEyond bad it was coyote bad, we would have been better off to just sit by the lake and howl.

"Heineken? f*** that s*** ! Pabst Blue Ribbon is what you'll drink tonight!" ~Frank Booth from the motion picture BLUE VELVET

But the camping, ahh the camping, it was great. Who am to complain about being up there above the Okanogan Valley, sharing a campfire with good people and drinking bad beer.
Dr. and Mama Math brought the Mathlings, Teasin' Trout and Augustus (for those of you who don't aren't in the know the eldest Mathling is married to Teasin'Trout and Gus is their strapping young lad of eleven months.) Mathling #2 is called Mo and she fished ten times harder than anyone but as they say in the Math family 10 X 0 is still 0.
Jack came all the way up from Walla Walla but apparantly his truck was too full of satelite equipment (go Mariners!) to bring The Librarian and his Scandanavian bride. Rick came up for a couple of days too. Every night after a six pack of Bud Light and a few shots of JD Rick would go out on the lake and chase rises. That was fun to watch on the account of all the rises actually being ducks who were diving to the bottom to eat weeds. Rick did catch one fish though. We all looked up to him after that feat.
To top it all off Mrs. WT was there too. Her and the other girls clucked it up pretty good while the men pondered the finer points of the outdoor life.
We ate good, drank lots and watched the full moon rise. The air was clean and thin, the hangovers were mild and it didn't rain so all in all it was a good trip and I am glad that we all were there.