… Official flyguys.net Northern British Columbia, BC Interior, Kamloops Area Lakes & Rivers Ice Off 2016 Fishing Reports post!
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Can’t understand why there isn’t a ban on all barbed hooks. If decreasing the mortality rate of released fish is the objective then why allow barbs? I use only barbless hooks and release 99% of my catch.
Because there are a lot of people out there who when they fish don’t catch and release. They take whatever they catch home to the table, and fish spit barbless hooks alot easier than barbed. Less lost fish, especially for the less experienced anglers. Sometimes I take young children out fishing (nieces, nephews, friends kids etc) and quite often they will fish barbed, because we are keeping whatever they catch regardless of size. In these instances I see no problem with using barbed hooks. If catch and release is involved barb’s in my opinion should be pinched. I think far more fish are wasted by the fly fishing community than bait fishermen. Especially during the summer months. The statistics of caught and released fish mortality rates that I’ve read on sites like gofishbc are astonishing.
“I think far more fish are wasted by the fly fishing community than bait fishermen. Especially during the summer months. The statistics of caught and released fish mortality rates that I’ve read on sites like gofishbc are astonishing.”
According to the FFSBC article I saw it’s 10 – 40 % mortality with C&R depending on conditions. So half a dozen fly fishers on a lake during a good cronie hatch @ 30ish fish each would be 18 dead fish at best and as many as 72 at worse!! Compare that to the 30 that 6 meat fisherman bonk (5 each) and then go home and your point is well taken Evan.
Do your best to minimize the mortality rate but make no mistake C&R fly fishing kills fish. With respect to barbed vs barbless, I’m not sure, unless the hook is swallowed, how that would even play a roll in mortality … and I’ve yet to see a swallowed fly.
Once I hit 25 fish between my son and I (doesn’t happen a lot) I usually pack it in for the day. I know that a few won’t make it and each time you catch a fish they are usually harder to catch for the next guy. I want the next person to enjoy the lake as well. I wouldn’t regulate a number but I hope many would feel similar.
Thanks…and yes barb’s play little to no part in mortality rates, but can result in a fair bit of damage done especially with the larger hooks on smaller fish. I find them to be more of a pain in the @$$ than anything for a number of reasons and little bit of a cause for concern when casting…even more so with newbies in the boat lol.
I had the opportunity to use a small underwater camera system a few years back. I was interested in seeing how the actual structure compared to what I was seeing on my sounder. That aside, I used the camera at Tunkwa after a prolific bomber hatch. There was a lot of angling pressure and some of the best rods around were present. I was stunned when I viewed the images – some areas of the lake were literally paved with dead fish. The same was true when I scanned a number of areas at Roche. Perhaps a quickly released fish has a good chance of survival but I know that many fish are hooked more than once (holes in their lips and other damage). One lake (Roche) is barbless and the other not – the result was the same.
I have to admit it is pretty disconcerting to hear that, I can definitely understand it during the bomber hatch on Tunkwa though with the surface temp. of the water being so high. I wonder how many times fish get hooked a season in heavily fished lakes?
I am under no illusions that every fish I release survives even though I take great care not to touch them or lift them out of the water during release. It’s barbless hooks in rivers and for salmon and I don’t understand why there and not everywhere. Meat fishermen and kids fish those waters too.
Because most of the stocked lakes you will not run into a situation where release is mandatory or any wild stocks of fish. Most lakes with release requirements do have barbless reg’s in place, Pass or Courtney for example. On the rivers it is not uncommon to catch something you MUST release. Barbless protects wild steelhead, endangered stocks and undersized fish etc as well as other contributing factirs, there is no doubt that a lot of unexperienced anglers will surely kill a fish trying to release one that has been hooked with barb’s *especially* in instances where a fish has swallowed bait.
Any one out at red or pass lake recently? Wondering what depths they’ve been feeding at.. thanks
Anchored in 25-30 feet and 8-10 feet off the bottom is still slaying them 🙂
Has anyone fished Jimmy or Scuitto lately?
Took 2 casts off shore at Scuitto the other day….Landed 2 of the skinniest fish I have ever seen. Heads were far thicker than the body……
Fished scuitto. Nothing big. Anything green seemed to work well. Also purple leeches. Good action between the island and tree stump sticking out and the opposite side of the island. Caught fish all over though in shit weather. Trolling though. Winds made it tough to cast and anchor. Good luck if you go.
fished Peterhope and Pass the last 3 days and both were decent…damsel nymph and pumpkinhead on the intermediate line….ps the weather report is not 100% accurate
Don
Has anybody fished Sawmill lately , thank you.
fished it friday and sat. slow. few on chironies and leeches under an indicator. 3-5lbs. black chirony with silver rib and a green redbutt. water got up to 69 degrees. buncha fruit pickers having a big party trashed the place woke me up in my truck at 1:30 am asking if i could sell them cocaine.
Was at Bleeker last night and this morning. I only got one small one but others caught a 7, and 5lb. The leeches were floating on top of the water and we’re huge. Man that is a tough lake to troll with all the shallow spots and weeds.
Morning All,
Wondering if anyone has fished Dairy Lake this year?
Thanks,
Jamie
Was at dairy june 19th, lots of 12-14″ the odd 17-18″. most taken on a black, red butt silver rib cronie size 12 & 14. yellow damsel and dragon nymphs were getting good action too. all around 18′ of water, temp was low 60’s
Thanks for the info. Nice to see the water temp still ok. I had up to 70 at Lookout Lake near Harrison last week. Too warm…
I think I’ll hit Dairy in a few weeks. I’ll definitely use your tips…
Cheers.
Tried to find Sawmill from Salmon Lake side and couldn’t find it. Can anybody tell me if you have to come in from Falkland .
I don’t think the sawmill lake near Falkland is stocked ????
I think they are talking about the Sawmill lake near Oliver …it also has a second name I believe
Ok thanks , but the people I talked to said it was good but a until I get more info
I’ll leave it alone . Thanks a lot.
Hit Boss Lake a couple days ago on the way back home. I don’t know about you but when I go for a couple days of fishing I like to hit a lake on the drive home. Feels like a bonus lake. Had fished Davis last year and wanted to give Boss a try. Easy lake to troll and 5min in hooked a female trout. Then it began to rain pretty good and bites dried up. Saw a big 5-6lb bow right near shore under a deadfall. Could see the fish under the water but couldn’t get a bite. Just sitting there smiling at me.
What are the water temps looking like around the Roche lakes? Was thinking of either Bleeker or Black lake next weekend
Spent the morning at Black lake lots of activity but got skunked water temp was 64,headed over to Roche managed to get one to the net about 3 lbs . lots of little guys around and water temp was also 64 overall a slow day but better then working!
did bleeker over the weekend. lots of caddis and damsels coming off. Got everything from 12″-22″. fish were spread out in the column, did reasonably well in 5 feet right off the campsite, but then drifting we got some in 22 feet with full sinks. biggest was 4ish pounds. water temps were about the same 63 or so.
Hey GR thanks for the report! Were you getting them on caddis or damsels or something else? Where they clean fish? Sounds like you had fun. Bleekers definitely on my fall hit list!
yellow damsels on a 12 2xl got most of them. tan elk hair caddis #12 dry got one during a brief hatch. #12-14 dark brown caddis nymphs were responsible for a half dozen. All the Does were super bright, had one 18″ buck with some residual colour. was there for May long and all were coloured up. Might have to head back in the fall myself 🙂
Joohhhnnnnnnnnnyy!
I have a quick question about aluminum prams just wondering how the springbok pram stands up beside the harbour craft fly fisher. I have seen the fly fishers up close but not the springbok.any info would help thanks guys
They are pretty much identical. I’m pretty sure the fly fisher was designed after the springbok. If I remember the story correctly it was Ron Thompson’s (Kamloops Fly Shop / Thompson ReUse) springbok that Harbercraft used as a model. Maybe he’ll chime in.
The only real difference is the back seat, which on the springbok sits against the transom and on the fly fisher sits about 8 inches out from it. I prefer the springbok design as i) nothing can fall off and behind the back seat and ii) it gives you more leg room between the middle and back seat. I believe all other dimensions are equal … 40″ floor, 48″ beam, 9′ 4″ length.
And then there’s the “pre” fly fisher. Again pretty much the same thing except in this pre model Harbercraft kept the back seat against the transom like the springbok AND they made the floor & beam wider (42″ & 50″ I think). The downfall (in my opinion) though was using a separate peice of aluminum for the floor therefore requiring multiple rivets along both sides of the boat about an inch up from the bottom. If they had made it one piece with the sides like the fly fisher and springbok I believe this would be the ultimate fly fishing platform, and indeed some still think it is, but I don’t like all them dam rivets ;p
Either way they are all tremendous one man fly fishing boats that are getting harder and harder to find. If you do happen to stumble across one in decent shape buy it. If you don’t want it then let me know and I’ll buy it 🙂
Hope that helps …….
Thanks for all the info, I had a line on a springbok and just went to have a look at it. The people were pretty much giving it away !!! Couldn’t pass it up ! No more pontoon boat for me , I tried to sent a pic but wouldn’t let me anyway thanks
Awesome congrats! Send the pic to [email protected] and I’ll edit it in for ya 😉
Hello fellow anglers!
Good chance I’ll be goin to Harmon lake in Kane Valley! Anybody have any words of wisdom? Never fished it and don’t know what to expect this time of year!
Thanks