Well that was an awesome year but it’s time close off 2012 and move on to 2013! Thanks to everyone that contributed reports, stories & pictures last year and we’re really hoping to see even more of you on our … 2013 Fishing Reports post!
Tight lines & good times in 2013!
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Went up to Pass Lk Sunday April 22/12 and this is what I found.
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Ice cover is Still pretty thick, may be a couple weeks yet.
The rumor at wholesalesports is that Pass may have suffered winter kill. Anyone else hear anything about this?
That is based on low oxygen levels under the ice during winter testing. We won’t know for sure until the ice is off and dead fish are seen and live fish are scarce…It would be a tremendous shame if it killed again.
Yes, I heard from a friend who works at the Ministry that the oxygen levels were below critical for Pass and that it would be winter-killed. Same for Bleeker and Beaton. I hope Pass survives, but it didn’t sound good.
Thanks for uploading the pic Emilio.
This was Tranquille Crk Monday Apr. 23/12
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Do peoPle fish that creek?
Yes, but during Spring run-off is probably not a good idea.
This was the same spot today.
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Red lake is now open! Lots of fishable water, should be completely off in next day or so. Probably 1/3 of lake is open!
Mark: Yes, fished some open water on Red today. Got a nice little Brookie 15 1/2 inches, 1 lb 12 oz on a micro-leech. Lots of open water, but the ice was constantly shifting. At one point the ice had completely blocked me in. The wind has basically opened up the south bay by the boat launch by pushing all the ice down to east-end of the lake. The ice was disappearing pretty fast, but I would say it would not be entirely ice free until Thursday.
I’ll have to give that lake a shot one day. I hear nothing but great things about it.
Christian: It is my favorite lake. The only lake I have yet to be skunked on. It has also yielded my top 6 rainbows and top 10 + brook trout. When it is off, just wait a couple of hours and it will be back on again. The first time I fished it I was at the launch with Brian Chan. We spoke for a while and I think he summed Red up best. There is no one spot on this lake that is good for fishing, it is the whole lake.
Cheers,
Darryl
Fished Gardom Lake on Friday. Got lots of fish on chrome chironomids but nothing big. There were a few hogs taken. The ministry stocked the lake with catchables again this year. I have never seen so many people on the lake. With the tremendous pressure and the current stocking regime, Gardom will soon become a fine family fishing lake. Although I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing, it is somewhat dissapointing given the potential it has to grow large trout that were evident last year. There seems to be an ever growing number of people fishing power bait and marshmellows from the dock at the park which results in large numbers of larger fish being taken from the system. I guess it all depends on what type of lake that people want. I am kind of torn, since I think that kids and families need a place where they can experience catching fish easily.
Fishing pressure will not turn the lake into a family fishery. The overstocking of the lake is the way that a family fishery is created. Many lakes that produce large trout year after are subjected to the most pressure (i.e. Dragon, Jacko, Roche and Forest to name but a few). I wouldn’t worry about the angling pressure; pay attention to the number of fish that are being stocked into the lake and that will tell you what size fish to expect in the coming years.
Art,
Point well taken. I think Gardom is unique because it was killed off several years back and had one year after restocking with triploids when the fishing was closed. Those fish grew to a large size because of the productivity of the lake. Last year there was a large number of big fish taken from the system and with the current restocking program I believe that the fish will not reach that size again. What remains of the large fish will probably be removed in the next couple of years before it stabilizes with smaller fish. I do agree that the restocking has more to do with the lack of large fish than the heavy fishing pressure. I guess I just wanted to have a trophy lake 15 min from my house.
Cheers,
AJ
Art,
Good pointers about how to find lakes with larger fish. Another factor which I hadn’t considered until I had a discussion with a fisheries biologist is water quality, specifically PH level. Lakes that become too alkaline like Edith and Stump stress the fish and stunt their growth. Even though these are highly productive lakes capable of producing huge fish the fish will be smaller than they used to be unless the PH drops to a lower level more conducive to fish growth. I’ve heard the PH levels are becoming stable to improving in Stump which is promising and Edith is being addressed by diverting more fresh water into the lake.
Learnt a lot today 🙂
so Ron, what lakes around kamloops have pretty good PH level that allows fish to grow big? Is Jacko considered one of them?
Thank you.
I’m not an expert but most lakes around Kamloops have good PH levels which allow fish to grow big. The minerals like calcium allow shrimp to thrive because they need to grow exoskeletons. These lakes are high in nutrients for plankton and insects and have large shoal areas for photosynthesis to occur. The problem arises when we have drought conditions that don’t provide enough fresh water and the alkalinity goes above optimum levels. Stump and Edith were great lakes for growing big fish before PH levels reached 9. If the levels go down they will be again.
Jacko is definitely a lake that grows big fish. I’ve caught one, and seen a few others in the 30 inch range caught there over the past 2 years. Other examples of local small lakes that can produce huge fish are Red and Roche. Some lakes that can produce monsters are unfortunately subject to winterkill so they are more of a hit and miss proposition (Pass for example).
Hello,
I’m looking to head up camping for a couple days tomorrow in the Kamloops/Merritt area. Does anyone have any recommendations on a lake that would be ice free with a forest service campsite at or nearby the lake? So far Jacko looks like my best bet but I’m curious if there are better options…
Many thanks,
M
There is no camping at Jacko. Give Edith a shot instead.
Thanks, Is there any camping at Edith?
Monika there is camping at Edith but only about 7 or 8 sites. But is nice lake,Lots of fish and 2 launchs
Yes. A few years back, the Provincial Recreation Sites & Trails Branch of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations acquired some of the lakeside land off a local landowner (who was having heaps of trouble with unauthorized camping, partyers and general yahoos) and developed formal recreation sites and camping. It seems to get a lot of use now in addition to the typical heavy day use the lake gets (especially when the fishing is good). Expect the Rec site to be busy in high demand periods.
Much of Tunkwa is ice-free and Roche is starting to break up.
Does anyone have info on peter hope. If the ice is off
Posted yesterday on another site by the caretaker at the resort:
“I was up a week ago and the ice was still looking white we are going up on Thursday and will be there all summer May 1st is usually Ice off give or take a day at Peter Hope , Glimpse is a bit higher and is usually a week after Peter Hope.”
Anybody hear if Joyce Lake near Pillar are iced off? Thanks
I would guess that it has been open for at least a week, possibly longer. Go and give it a shot.
Thanks will check it out.
Heffley is ice free FISH ON
Wow that was fast, I was out Sunday and there was still allot of rot. Glad to hear
Fished Jocko today from 1000-1500. Water temperature was up five degrees from this past Saturday sitting at 54 degrees. I fished the second bay on the south-east side anchored beside the beaver dam in four feet of water. Hooked just over a dozen fish in three hours on size 18 & 20 black chironomids with a silver wire rib and a white bead head. Most of the fish in the 14-18″ inch range with a few just over 20″.
The weather took a turn early in the afternoon with big grey clouds and driving wind and rain moving in. The fishing slowed right down for the last hour and I only managed one fish compared to the quick pace before.
The lake looked like it was starting to turn towards the north end. There were huge bright green mats of decayed plant matter and algae suspended throughout the water column, which looked like pea soup. Even the south east end of the lake had bright green chunks of algae and plant matter. I fished the lake last Saturday and the water was much colder and way clearer than today.
Looks like Tunkwa and Leighton should be good for the weekend with the latest news!
Cheers,
Chris
Has anyone been to Pass this week??
I am so curious why is pass frozen still and tunkwa is not when it is 200 m less in elevation. Any ideas? Also anyone know if lac le jeune and hyas are still frozen?
Finally why don’t ideas float around about how to get aerators that work on bleeker, pass, and others that kill our great fishing, such as paying five bucks into a kitty everytime someone fishes it to go towards said oxygen helpers? I would have no problem putting money into a lock box that fish and game clubbers retrieve in order to get fishing stabilized at good lakes. I am sick of hearing about winterkill with technology that is available to remedy situations like this. Who is in charge lets figure this crap out? This seems like basic science that wouldnt be too too costly. Great site so lets get the ball rolling and talk.
I would assume pass is thawing later than tunkwa due to being far more sheltered from wind and also getting a lot less radiation from the sun as it is mostly on the north side of a hill.. Tunkwa is very open to the sun and notoriously windy.
Willy,
Pass thaws invariably late for a lake of its elevation. As Matt suggested, probably a combination of factors, chiefly wind and direct sun.
As for aerators, although technology has helped produce more effective aerators, they are still really only effective when the O2 levels are marginal. If O2 is too low they just can’t add enough to make the difference. I suspect that as our old equipment starts failing they’ll be replaced with newer, better units, but on a lake like Bleeker, the shape of the lake makes it impossible to adequately aerate the lake from just one spot (even if there are two units like at Bleeker. You’d need to spread them across the lake every couple of hundred meters and that would just cost too much to implement and run.
If the lake does not have hydro running to it (I’m almost certain that Pass does not), the cost of running hydro lines over long stretches is considerably more than they are going to pull out of a lock-box. Of course, the other issue with lock-boxes is that (the right) people will do just about anything to get at that money. There is unfortunately no shortage of yahoos around.
The winterkill in lakes often augments the fishery, since partial kills go a long way to leaving a few surviving fish a lot of food and thus allows them to grow to sizes you wouldn’t see with full survival every year. Even full kills can create good fishing since the next stockings of fish are into waters where they are not sharing food with multiple age-classes and hence grow accordingly.
You just have to go with the ebb and flow of those lakes and it makes it interesting trying to keep a handle on what killed how many years back and when will it be in prime shape again. Many lakes that go through popular phases fall off the radar of folks after a few winterkills, and those who find themselves there in the next years with good survival arrive to sparser (and occasionally no) crowds.
Willy,
Bleeker is a lost cause with respect to winterkills. The lake will experience a significant kill nearly every winter. As Benny mentioned it would take far too many aerators to make a difference on Bleeker Lake and the cost of running those aerators would be steep. I try and make a point of fishing Bleeker once every fall and there are usually a lot of small fish that have only been in the lake for a few months, but there always seems to be a few bigger fish as well.
As for Pass, the winterkill that occured in 2009 was an anomaly. While it was reasonably common to see a few dead fish at ice-off, the near total kill that year was unheard of. IF the lake has a big kill again this year it will be very strange as that will be 2 big winterkills in 4 years. When the lake was putting out its largest fish (2004-2008) there had been a couple of partial winterkills in the preceding years. Those kills reduced the trout population and the surviving fish grew bigger than ever. It pays to stay on top of these partial kills as abnormally large fish can be taken at these lakes in subsequent years. And as Benny mentioned, often those who take the risk to visit a lake that has supposedly winter-killed are rewarded as the crowds at these lakes are usually non-existent.
Art, Benny,
Thanks for the insight. I do consider myself educated and astute. Yet, I still am profoundly interested and surprised at the info. I collect by the individuals on this site. I am well aware of research etc. however I am perplexed at where you get all that info. I love to learn more and more, I am only a 3 yr fly guy in kamloops area but would love to know how you guys have accumulated such a breadth of knowledge about said lakes and others. Again, super big thanks. Tight lines.
For myself, the knowledge comes from a lot of days on the water. Having the background as a biologist doesn’t hurt either.
As for Benny…he is mostly just BS’ing everyone most of the time but he includes words such as “concordantly and hence” in his posts to make it sound like he knows what he is talking about.
Here, here!!! I’m so thankful I can come on here and gather info from people that know a lot more than I ever will. And three cheers for Rob and the others that keep this site going. I’d be lost without you. And I mean that in more ways than one!!! 😉
I was telling Benny just the other day that I was going to set up a forum category called “Ask Benny” but I think now I’ll make it “Ask Benny & Art”! 😉 What do you guys think?
I think that is a bad idea!
I’ve heard he is unreliable (at least that’s what his wife says…)
anyone been out to echo lake yet?? if not im going to give them a call see if thers still ice i want to go fish echo!!
Can someone tell me the best way to drive into Red Lake? I have never been up there and by the looks of things on google earth there are a few options…. Coming from Kamloops… thanks in advance
Head out along Tranquille.
That is the easiest from Kamloops 🙂
awesome. thanks!
if anyones interested echo lake is open now..biting is slow caught a few on chromnids..around a lb n some REALLY slow though