Lake Cuyamaca flyfishing from a float tube

Cuyamaca fishes well from a tube. It does get weedy and mossy during the summer. But shouldn't be too bad now. Same tactics that work in Sierra work here. As you would expect, it fishes better for trout after a plant. The lake website has the planting schedule.

 

Standard wind pattern

 

Park at Chambers Park then walk the trail along the shore and put in just off shore by the lone Pine tree and let the wind blow you back down to Chambers casting to the shore. You can get about 2-3 hrs on an outing and black or brown Wooly's on a W/F 5wgt floating line or sinking tip worked for me The lake is fairly shallow like less than 8-10 ft in most places and as stated can get rather windy in the late afternoon.. While most of the trout are in the +- 2 lb size they are fun to catch and sometimes you can hook up with a bigger model. I have had several outings years ago on a warm summer evening when it got buggy and had hot action till the ranger motored out and started clearing the lake as the sun dipped below the mountain.

 

A little more on the wind. It's been fairly windy in the mountains for the last few week.

Fortunately the lake isn't too big. I got caught a couple of times where I got blown across and couldn't kick back. Had to walk.

If east winds are predicted I would often not go. West winds occur almost daily and start late morning. Sometimes they are manageable all day. Some time they just get too strong.


I go to the national weather service San Diego site for wind predictions. Use the map to select the lake area then click on the graphical forecast. It will give you predicted wind velocity and direction.

Winds 8-10 mph will start the create waves with white crests. That's when I would usually quit if I was tubing

I used to catch a lot of fish there wading the Lone Pine Tree area and using an intermediate line in a strong west wind (coming from my right or casting side). The intermediate line would get below the surface wind driven current.

My favorite rig for trout there was a matuka or bugger with a bead head nymph trailer.

 

The plant dates may only reflect the week with that date and not the actual date of the plant.

It typically takes a couple of days for the fish to disperse. But there are some hold over fish

 

I don’t recall ever catching bass or panfish while trolling for trout at Cuyamaca.

I have caught crappie when casting for trout from a float tube and boat.

I have also caught bass, bluegill, crappie, and bullhead while wading and casting for trout at the lake.