Cobb Mayfly Brookie

Fished Cobb Lake today. The wind was not nice. The mayfly hatch was good. The brookies liked my leeches. It was a good day.

Social Distance Tying

With the virus Covid-19 (Coronavirus) creating turmoil throughout the world and everyone distancing themselves socially I chose to deepen my fly choices in my fly boxes.

I have had lots of time at home, the ice is not off the lakes yet and there is little to do during the muddy transition from winter to spring. I have been tying a variety of flies such as scuds, nymphs, dries and of course chronomids in preparation for the soft water season. 

Not much else to report, other than I am hopefully honing a few skills while passing some time. A couple of notes. I need more material (although I can never have enough). Also, I am really liking UV resin. I currently use Solarez Bone-Dry. I would love to explore more types, brands, and colours. I have even ordered a bigger, plug in, UV light that is used in nail decorating facilities. Looking forward to its arrival.

Looking ahead I have a few projects before ice off. More flies, reinforce the bow of my boat for towing and buy some new tires for my truck (better off pavement capabilities).

See you on the lake... but keep your distance!

2019 Bulkley Steelhead

Left the house at 3am this morning to drive the 3 hours to the Bulkley river. A quick Tims stop for a kids menu coffee and some loud music kept me awake after only getting four hours sleep the night before. Oh, and Brrrrrr.... it was cold. Only 2 degrees celcius this morning. Upon arriving at the Bulkley I immediately regretted not packing gloves. However, i soon forgot about the cold as the sun peaked over the mountains and I had my first fish on. A steelhead who immediately became acrobatic and promptly snapped my 15 pound fluro leader. Re-tie my leader and fly. Back to swinging the double hander. Water clarity was perfect, just a bit of colour, and the flow was spot on. A few more casts, a few steps down stream, a few more casts and a few steps then WHAM, fish on. Cartwheels, hard runs, the reel goes zing and the battle is on. This one came to hand, had a quick pic and was released without leaving the water.

The day continued with one more steelhead to hand and one freight train the hit HARD, showed off his big square tail and then broke my leader (again). Next time I'm using 20 pound. In between steelhead there were nuisance fish that were also taking the fly. These fish were getting in the way of finding steelhead *cough* *cough*. Not sure why anyone would want to hook coho on the fly while looking for steelhead.... .. (insert sarcasm sign ) Kidding aside, the by catch of coho was pretty fun too. Landed four of those buggers. Retention is one over 50 cm and one below. Couldnt get the one below 50 but retained one over 50 for the smoker.

2019 Stillwater Preparations

I'm not sure how I found the time, work has been so busy. However, I did manage to complete the floor in my boat today. It took me a few weeks but im glad its done. 1" Insulation foam sheets under carpeted 3/8" plywood (sealed with spar urethane). Carpet was glued down with 3m super 77 spray adhesive and stapled for added strength. Next up is installing my new helix 7 si fish finder.

Bulkley Double Double

This morning I woke up at the crack of too early, rolled out of bed and drove throught the darkness and smoke to the other side... .. .. Smithers.

I got to the Bulkley river where a couple people were casting spoons in the run above where I began my day. I put together my spey rod, threw on my favorite weighted black and blue intruder fly and started working the water. I had only been there for about half an hour, slowly working my way down a nice long run, when a couple arrive. She goes to the run upstream and he... ..low holes me. I wasn't too happy but I wasnt going to let it ruin my day. At least he was moving down the run, so I followed (at a distance). He was moving a bit faster than I was, finished fishing the run and joined his fishing buddy up stream. No sooner had he left and I had my fly slammed hard like a freight train followed by a big steelhead exploding out the water. After a great battle with lots of heart stopping acrobatics I managed to land the beauty. I snuck a quick pic (hard to do by yourself) and sent it on its way.

As the day went on I managed to hook three coho (two of which I landed) and another steelhead (which I lost) all in that same run. My spey rod got a good workout, my new Monic GSP running line is fantastic and I cant say enough good things about my galvan reel. LOVE those reels. #galvanreels .. sponsor me and I will gladly promote your reels everywhere I go. Oh and while i'm at it.. #monicflylines ?

Things died down and I explored up stream which yielded no fish. I went back to the first run and thought I woud give it one more sweep through before I drive home. The guy from earlier and his wife were there and working there way through. I let them go and followed behind and pulled another steelhead out behind them! This time he came over and snapped a quick pic for me. Nice guy. They came up from Oregon and had been fishing the river for 5 days with only a couple coho to show for it.

The day ended with a double double for me. Two steelhead landed and two coho landed.

Socks

Its been a long time but they opened sockeye for retention on the Fraser River.

Disclaimer: I don't consider this a "fishing" trip, it's more of a harvest. This is due to the methods used which im not going to get in to, other than its bottom bouncing and the colour at the terminal end has no impact on the catching.

Well I happened to be in town so I took advantage of trying to harvest a few fish for the freezer. The first few outings were unsuccessful, with a few sparse hookups and no fish landed. The fourth outing was yhe one and it took me under an hour to get my limit. The bar was busy but everyone was catching fish. It was nice to see people getting along as the combat style fishing can be frustrating. And really noce to be able to put a couple fish in the freezer.

A quick tip that helped with my landing ratio (went from 3 hookups and none landed to 3 for 3) was changing to a sickle style hook. Those hooks weren't popping out so easily. I was using a 1/0 size which worked great.

First big game animal...

Successfully hunted my first big game animal this weekend. Up until this point all I've ever taken was a few grouse. Well that ended yesterday when I shot my first elk.

I had an LEH for a cow elk in region 7-13 and finally found one yesterday. We had been able to locate lots of bulls, some of which were impressively big. I shot this cow from about 150 yards out in a frozen swampy field in a heard of seven or eight of them. We trekked over to where we figured she was when I shot but we couldnt find her. We followed tracks into the trees and found a blood trail. Staying on her trail we bumped her twice (we think). It was getting dark and freezing rain at about minus 15 Celsius. We knew I hit it and had followed the tracks about half a km. We gave up the seach for the night and went back the next day. Found her this morning about 100 yards or so past where we stopped looking. Skinned and hanging right now. Soon to be in the freezer for some delicious meals.