| Lake Christine - Manton, California |
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This quiet 6-acre lake is less than an hour from Redding toward Mount Lassen National Park. It's easy to get to and is the perfect spot for a day of float tube fly fishing for brilliant rainbows and browns.
The Young Ranch is home to Lake Christine, located in a park-like setting nestled in a forest of evergreens and hardwoods and watched over by the ever-vigilant bald eagle family that nests in a towering pine just off the shore.
The Fishing:
Even though Lake Christine is relatively small it is surprising how selective its trout can be and how that can change with the seasons. There are a great many fish in this lake and one would think that they would just jump all over any fly you offered them. While there are certainly times that this is the case, it is not always so easy - you must learn the intricacies of fishing lakes, and how to recognize what is going on in and around the water to consistently do well at Lake Christine.
Lake Christine opens to fishing with ice-out in the spring, usually around the first of March. The early spring fishing is mostly streamers on sinking or intermediate lines, and sight-casting midges to cruising trout. By early summer, the callibaetis hatches begin. And the callibaetis hatches on Lake Christine can come in epic proportions, sometimes two or three different hatches during the course of the day, all of them blanket hatches that can get seemingly every fish in the lake slurping the dancing mayflies off the surface. During these amazing hatches - that last all summer long and into the fall - it is not uncommon to stalk and sight-cast to individual feeding trout in shallow water, much like bonefishing on the flats only with dry flies!
During lulls in the callibaetis hatch, the damselflies in Lake Christine can provide some great midday action during the summer months, both subsurface and as adults.
The Accommodations:
Although there's no place to spend the night at Lake Christine, there is a rental cabin just minutes away - The Lorna Kendler cabin (530-474-5262) and approximately 20 minutes away is The Westin House B&B (530-474-3738). Redding and Red Bluff hotels and restaurants are less than an hour away. Moreover, the Young Ranch is a neighbor to the famous Rock Creek Lake and cabin, and anglers often end a visit to that fine fishery with an added day on Lake Christine.
Rates:
Fishing: $135.00 per person per day
Occupancy... maximum of 4 anglers
Float Tube & Fins rental: $12.00 per day
For information/reservation please call Gary @ 1-800-410-1222 or email garye@americanfly.com
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