FISHCAM
at Lenice Lake, WA
Taking FISHCAM to Lenice Lake was really the idea behind the whole project. The Lenice-Nunnally chain of lakes is probably the best known of WA's "trophy" management lakes, and I have been flyfishing there at least one week a year for the past 27 years. The dry fly fishing there is so visual that it is a natural for the camera. I wanted to catch the rocketing explosion of a big Lenice fish feeling the surprise bite of that little hook.
This was FISHCAM's first serious outing so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had two lenses to try out, a normal 50MM and a wide angle 28MM and two different camera bodies, film and digital, and only actual fishing experience would tell me which would be best relying on imperfect head pointing and the autofocus on the camera.
Unfortunately, Lenice 2004 for the second week of May was fishing more poorly and atypically than any year in my experience. The fish were really not in the shallows and back coves and locked on dry fly grazing as they usually are. And the first three days of rain (in the DESERT for God's sake) kept FISHCAM in the cabin, but the fishing was reasonable, 4-10 fish a morning. The 4th day weatherwise was a Lenice dream day, flat calm, sunny and warming, but the fishing, for FISHCAM's first outing (50mm lens, digital camera), was AWFUL! The fish would just NOT lock on to surface feeding in any pattern. Result... 4-5 takes, 2 fish caught. FISHCAM was NOT focused for the jumps, the 50mm lens is too focus demanding. The results are shown. Day 5, our short last morning with the 28mm lens ended up being little more interesting with some reasonable (but selective) hatch feeding. Still, a VERY weird year at Lenice.
What you are seeing is what FISHCAM can do under the WORST of conditions.







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