How to Fish Buzzers on Crowley Lake

Crowley Lake is a midge lake first and everything else second. The overwhelming majority of what its trout eat, across the whole season, is chironomid pupa, which anglers usually call buzzers. If you learn to fish a buzzer properly on Crowley, you will catch fish here, and you will also be able to fish stillwater almost anywhere in the world. It is the most transferable skill in trout fishing.

Depth is everything

If you take one thing from this, take this. On Crowley, depth matters more than pattern. A mediocre buzzer at the right depth will out fish a perfect buzzer three feet too high, every single time.

Set your indicator so the fly sits close to the bottom, then adjust in one foot steps until you find fish. The mistake almost everyone makes is changing flies when they should be changing depth. Give a depth fifteen or twenty minutes, then move it, and keep a note of what worked so you can start there next time.

As a starting point, the stream channels in 6 to 15 feet are reliable through much of the season, and in high summer the fish drop deeper, sometimes to 20 feet or more, as the surface warms.

Set the rig up properly

An indicator, a long leader, and one or two buzzers is the whole system. Two flies at different depths is the fastest way to find the level, because you are effectively testing two answers at once. Fine tippet matters on clear water, especially once the summer algae has died back and visibility improves.

Then leave it alone. A buzzer is fished static or very nearly so. The takes come as the fly hangs, and your job is to watch the indicator and resist the urge to fiddle. If there is a ripple, that is doing all the movement you need.

Which buzzer

Black is the default and it always will be. A Black Buzzer is the fly to tie on first, and The Black Chironomid Pupa gives you a slimmer profile when the fish look at the first one and decline.

Red is the other colour that matters, because bloodworms are exactly that. Our Chironomid Nymph in red from the Eastern Sierra series is tied for this lake specifically. When it is breezy and you need to punch down through the chop quickly, an Epoxy Buzzer Red Pearl sinks faster and holds up to a lot of fish.

On size, watch what is actually coming off. There are stretches of summer where the midges on Crowley are almost impossibly small, and stretches where they run 14 to 18 and life gets much easier. Match the larger ones when you can find them.

When the buzzer stops working

Two windows will interrupt your day, and both are good news. Callibaetis come off roughly 9 to 10, and damsels emerge from about 11 to 1. When either starts, the fish will switch, and no amount of stubbornness with a buzzer will change their minds. Have The Green Damsel Nymph and a Thorax Callibaetis ready to go so you are not rummaging while it happens.

And if you see fish suspended well off the bottom and refusing everything, they are often on daphnia, which you cannot imitate. That is the moment to move rather than to keep trying.

Fish care

Crowley gets warm in summer, and a voluntary hoot owl approach applies when it does. Carry a thermometer. Above about 70 degrees, fish heavier gear so you can land them quickly, keep them in the net and in the water, and be willing to call it a day. These fish grow slowly and there are not infinitely many of them.

Every pattern above is one we tie ourselves, and each ships with a tutorial for the water it is made for. You can shop all our Crowley Lake flies here. New to the buzzer game and want someone to build you a starting selection? Email 395flyco@gmail.com and we will put one together.