Local trip

This week I took my two girls camping.  Prior to our departure I hit the fraser for a quick few casts to see if I could conjure up some sturgeon. The fraser river is still a bit high to sturgeon fish from shore but I did manage a small two footer. Detecting the bite was difficult due to the rod movement in the heavier current. The bait for the day was eulechon.
Our camping trip was a local one to Rolley Lake. The weather was great, sunny and very warm. Since I had some time to kill, relaxing with the kids on the side of the lake, I decided to cast out my ultra light weight spinning rod and see if I could pull some fish up off the bottom. We walked and found a nice spot near a small cold creek that was dumping into the lake. I decided to fish off the bottom and having forgot to bring any bait (aside from artificial flies) I used what I had which was an old jar of power bait.
Well the old power bait did work and I managed two small cutthroat to hand which were gently released. The bites were fast and furious but not too many of them.
The kids had fun looking at the small rainbow fry in the creek as well as a rather large stickleback (see the picture) while they scoured the shore for neat looking rocks and enjoyed the outdoors.

Low and clear fly fishing at the Capilano

Four o'clock in the morning is so early!

After only getting about 4 hours of sleep the night before, I was up and ready to hit the Capilano river with my fly rod for some early season coho.
When we arrived at the river we were happy to see it was quite void of the usual crowds of fishermen.  This was probably due to the early hour and the fact it was a weekday. Not to mention we were in for some tough fishing due to the very low and clear water. In these conditions it is important to go with small size offerings. Today I was using size 10 and 12 flies.
We started off near the highway bridge, a popular run I had never visited before. I can see the attraction to that run, there was a decent pool and some nice water to fish with a few boulders u der the water to provide structure. However, with the low clear water there were no fish holding there. So after giving it a try and coming up empty handed we moved on and up stream to find some more water to drop a fly in.
At our next stop we found a nice deep pool that had some surface action with a variety of sizes of fish from little smolts to decent sized coho. The main pool with all the action proved to be full of tight lipped fish. I went for a bit of a walk down stream and managed a couple small fish (4 and 6 inches). Not wanting to bither the little guys I moved on and found some nice pocket water. The water was deep and slow enough and a slightly agitated surface so I could not see down into the clear water. Perfect... except it was quite the technical pocket to fish with varying currents, tight quarters and the challenge of etting the fly down deep without the rest of the line getting caught in the heavier current and sweeping the fly out. At first I tried it with a bead head fly (as seen in the picture) and a heavy sink tip, but it wasn't enough to keep the fly deep. I felt my fly was not in the zone fast enough or long enough. The pocket was no more than about 8-10 feet long and maybe 2-3 feet wide of slower water. Nothing was tempted to try my fly. My next step was to secure a tiny splitshot to the leader to help keep it in the zone. No sooner had I done this and i could see a coho follow my fly up on the retrieve ( which was more or a slow lift upstream than a strip) but trn away last second. This happened two times before it slammed the fly. The coho took to the air with a couple jumps, some vigorous headshakes and then snap.... my leader broke just above the fly. I was disappointed but excited at the same time.
Unfortunately, that was the only other fish we touched this morning and it was the only one we saw hooked. The water needs to come up a bit to bring in some fresh fish.

West Coast day off

Well since my kids and I had the day off due to the current teachers strike, we decided to head to belcarra for a few hours. We took the crab traps and let them soak for a few hours and fished while we were waiting too.

There were a few other people fishing and crabbing too. One little boy caught a nice big flounder about 10 inches long, maybe more. Boy was he excited! Another couple of kids caught a bunch of herring just under the dock. As for us, we caught a couple small greenling and a small flounder. Enough to keep my kids occupied and happy. As for the crabs, my eldest daughter and I were having a little derby to see who caught the most. Usually she catches more but not this time. I brought in a grand total of 9 crabs (one of which was of legal size) and she brought in 6 crabs and a starfish. A couple of her crabs were within millimeters of being legal size.

A good day out, lots of beautiful sun and a tasty treat to take home in the end.

Capilano Hatchery

I was in North Vancouver this afternoon for my daughter's dance competition.  Since we were so close, we made a last minute decision to visit the Capilano hatchery after the dance performance.
We didn't stay for too long, but just long enough to check out the fish ladder, the hatchery displays and the fish holding behind the viewing glass.
If you haven't been to the hatchery I highly recommend it. It is a great place for the kids to learn a little about pacific salmon and steelhead and also get up close to see adult fish as well as juvenile.
There were a few nice coho behind the viewing glass that had made their way up from the Capilano river as well as one lonely steelhead. My kids enjoyed seeing the fish and exploring all the exhibits. It was a proud father moment when my youngest walked up to a display and promptly said "That's a sockeye daddy, it is red with a green head. And that's a chum, because it has purple stripes." Not bad for girl who just turned 5 two weeks ago.

After the hatchery we took a walk down to view the carnage at the Cable Pool. There were plenty of rods fishing the water and after speaking to a guy, there had been a couple of coho caught earlier that day.

The coho run in the Capilano consists of smallish coho typically and is an earlier run than the rivers of the surrounding area. The coho in the river are notoriously tight lipped and often shoot up the river quickly after the water level rises. When the water is low, they stage at the mouth of the river circling around in the ocean water waiting for the next heavy rain.

On a side note, in case you are planning on fishing the river, there is NO RETENTION OF STEELHEAD on the Capilano river and you would be wise to familiarize yourself with the proper identification of these fish.

Weekend Pictures

As promised here are a few pictures from this weekends excursions to Sawmill Lake (rainbows) and Vaseux Lake (smallmouth bass).

Hot sun and wind on Vaseux Lake

Yesterday brought me some excellent trout fishing so today I tried something a little different. I went bass fishing on the fly.
I drove out to Vaseux lake in Oliver from where I was staying in Osoyoos. It only took about half an hour to get there and the drive was an easy one.
When I arrived i loaded up my pontoon and set out on to the calm lake. I went straight for an island at the south end of the lake hoping to find some structure.
Now let me begin with this, I am not a bass fisherman. I very rarely target them and I don't have a lot of experience fishing for them. Today I decided to try a nice big black wooly bugger with a bit of flash on the sides and a gold bead head. Upon arriving at the island and finding some over hanging trees I began casting. About five casts in and I had a bass slam my bugger. The bass put up a decent fight, I snapped a couple of quick pictures and it was on my way. I believe (and again I dont fish bass often) it was a smallmouth bass, and it was a solid 12" long. A personal best when it comes to smallmouth  bass.
I continued to work my way down the island and ended up hooking into and landing a few more and loosing a couple as well. Unfortunately the wind began to pick up and there were whitecaps forming on the lake. I fished my way back down the island towards the car, allowing the wind to drift me along. Fortunately the car was in the direction the wind was blowing or I would be too tired to be writing this blog post.

I also saw a few nice looking carp cruising the shallows. The looked to be easily in the double digits. Unfortunately they didnt want to play with me and my fly. Although probably for the best as it would have most likely broken my rod or at very least broken the leader and stolen my fly.

The day ended with a half dozen fish to hand and a few long line releases. Again, not a bad day to be out.
Pictures will be up when I get back to Coquitlam.

May long at Sawmill

It's May long weekend and I am in Osoyoos. We drove up Friday after work and I couldn't leave my fly rod at home, it would have got lonely. Despite the long drive and lack of sleep last night I was up early to try out a new lake. With my pontoon strapped to the roof I was on my way to Sawmill lake. I heard there were some good size rainbows in the lake and that spring is a good time to fish it. The road up to the lake is a little rough and I wouldnt want to drive a car up it but i made it up with no problems in my SUV. Upon arriving I took a look around. There is a rustic campsite up there and some beautiful scenery. Standing on the shore looking out over the lake I see what I came here to find. A rotund, good size rainbow launched itself up out of the water  right out in front of me. I was getting even more excited and quickly returned to my vehicle to gear up and get on the water.
I had never fished Sawmill before so my first order of business was to tour the lake to look for fishy spot sporting structure and dropoffs. The lake is a small lake and quite shallow for the most part. I rowed around and trolled a black leech paying attention to what was under the water.
After about a half hour of putting around I found myself a nice shoal on the edge of deeper water where there was plenty of surface action. I anchored up and continued to cast my black leech pattern. No takers, knowing that there were fish feeding in the area I changed patterns to a green sparkle leech with a gold bead head. Two casts later I felt the familiar tug of a rainbow devouring my offering and I set the hook. By setting the hook I mean I simply lifted the rod as the fish had absolutely hammered the fly. A couple jumps and a great fight later I had my fist Sawmill rainbow to hand. Just a note, to anyone wanting to fish the lake it is currently artificial fly, barbless hooks and catch and release only (but don't take my word for it, check the regulations before you go).
As the day progressed the swallows began to show up. They must have known there was a hatch about to happen. Soon after they arrived mayflies began to hatch and the fish responded by sipping them off the surface. I was cursing myself for forgetting to bring mayfly dries. It would have been amazing to watch the trout rise in the clear water to a mayfly dry sitting on the surface. Fortunately, the trout continued to enjoy the tantalizing green sparkle leech I had on and I continued to catch many more rainbows, none of which were under 16" and many much larger ones.
Sawmill is now on my list of lakes to revist and fish again in the future. It was a successful day full of big rainbows and good times. On a side note, due to the warm climate in the area and the shallow lake, this lake is probably best fished in the spring and the fall  before and after the hot summer weather.

Pictures to come, when I get home.