Flea Flicker made an excellent post about the 5 Dot Stillwater   Clinic put on by Doug Ouellette. If you have not read it look for it under general fly fishing and do your self a favor and read it.

From my point of view the

The Five Dot Stillwater clinic last Saturday and Sunday with Doug was one of the best fishing / learning experiences for me because it affirmed many things I already knew and use but helped me think about them in a new way. It also added new things and got me to think outside the box. The clinic got me to reflect on the way I handle fish, tie knots, set up my leaders, what I do to set my self up to fish the the wind, to subtle changes in my   retrieve that move me beyond hand twist retrieve. Doug used practical stillwater tactics that add up tomake a difference. I put some of these strategies to the test on the last day Sunday and managed to catch a large number of quality fish, I had the retrieve dialed and I could feel the fish   lick the fly.

Manzanita
So the clinic ended on Sunday. My wife and I had plans to spend the week at   Manzanita Lake. I try to spend at least a few days up at Manzanita each year   because no matter how the catching goes the fishing is great. When I got   there people from a bay area club were fishing the lake and they told me the   fishing was really slow. There were also guys that fish the lake all the time   from Redding they confirmed the slow report. I fished Monday night and it   was slow. I tried some of my new tactics and I was searching for a pattern. I   managed 1 nice fish by the end of the evening. I got him because he showed   himself, I guessed right on his path and he took the fly. I got lucky. The   hatches were minimal mostly black caddis. People were right it was slow. Then   things changed for me because I remembered a couple of things Doug had mentioned.   I noticed just 3 adult blue damsels. I thought ok I will try a dark olive   bead head damsel that I tie. I fished it in 15 feet of water with heavy weed   growth no luck. I tried 10 feet of water I put to work a new retrieve Doug   had shown me. I caught a fish. I paid attention to the wind and made the   adjustments I caught another fish, the confidence factor was increasing. I   got into the zone and everything I was shooting was going in, the hoop got   big. I ended the evening with 9 fish 5 larger ones. Other anglers just a   couple of fish for the evening. So I had to get up early the next morning to   see if this pattern continued. The first thing I saw was one of the early   morning bay area club fishing warriors on the water. He asked me how I did. I   told what how I did and what I thought. He fished the fly and got into a 16   incher. I fished from 6:30 am to 8:30am and got into 9 fish 4 of them bigger   fish. Other angles just a couple of fish if any. Now I wanted to see what   would happen to the evening bite I managed just 2 small fish, the bite had   changed.
Now I had another puzzle to solve. So the lesson to me was just because the   bite is slow pay attention to details and they can add up and create an   advantage. I would recommend Doug’s clinic to anyone who is   interested in raising their their stillwater game. Oh by the way Doug has one   spool of just fluro carbon leader no fly line he fishes it by casting it 30   feet with a couple of midges.I encouraged Doug On Saturday afternoon to fish   next to me with his spool of flurocarbon leader and no fly line.If I got ten   fish he landed 30. He can also show you how to build and cast 18 to 30 foot   leaders with a fly line and fish effectively with no indicators.

Finally
I want to thank Kevin Doran who helped me trick out my Tacoma so I can load   and unload my 125lb metal head pram

Attached Thumbnails