Whonnock on the fly

Today I went to Whonnock Lake for a bit of trout fishing on the fly from my float tube. When I arrived at the lake I was pleased to see it void of any other fishermen. The lake was as smooth as glass and there was quite a few sparrows dipping down across the lake low and fast, feasting on the hatch that was taking place.
With great anticipation I started out onto the lake. My fly of choice was a red doc spratley, which has been my go to fly for this particular lake and has caught me many cutthroat and rainbow trout over the years. The day turned out to be fairly productive on the lake with a few nice rainbows to hand. On my way back to the launch I noticed a lot of consistent surface action in the shallows. The fish were not large but they were hungry. Upon further inspection I noticed the surface action was leaving small bubbles being, a sign the fish are feeding on something on the surface of the water. I changed lines to a lighter tippet and tied on a size 16 mosquito dry fly and lightly casted it towards shore. The fly landed softly on the surface and rode high. After giving the fly a couple small hand twist retrieves to give it some movement a small rainbow rose to the fly. I pulled up lightly on the rod and .... ...  missed the fish. However, now I know their game. They were drowning the flies first before they took them. Next cast landed just as softly, a couple of hand twists and then the fish rose again. This time I waited. A second later the fish hit the fly again and I hooked it. I stayed for a few more fish and then returned to shore and my car.

The day ended with me heading to the Fraser River for a little bit of sturgeon fishing. This time of year is when the eulechon begin to return to the river and the sturgeon feed on them. Unfortunately for me the sturgeon did not get the memo and my eulechon went untouched. I also tried some lamprey eel for bait and that failed too. No luck fishing for sturgeon today, maybe next time.  I can't complain though. Any day out fishing is a good day.