… Official flyguys.net Northern British Columbia, BC Interior, Kamloops Area Lakes & Rivers Ice Off 2016 Fishing Reports post!
As before, please use the comments/reply section at the bottom of this post to share and discuss your 2016 fishing, ice off, and even (but hopefully not) winter kill reports. Where did you go (not mandatory)? What worked? What didn’t work? General or specific questions about a fly, a technique, or whatever … feel free to ask it here and we’ll try our best to get you an answer! Oh, and a picture is worth a thousand words so please feel free to include one if you can!
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That’s it folks … tight lines & good times to all! 😀
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Mcglashan is fishing really good right now. Fish are schooling by size lots of bigger fish if you can find them. It’s been busy lately and the road is a mess from all the rain and traffic. One of my fishing partners did very well on Sunday on green leeches that I tied for him
Hit Dragon Lake on Sunday. Fishing seemed slow but fooled a few nice ones. Caught this beast in 12 feet of water with a maroon balanced leech. Great fight in those fish. Seeing lots of goldfish but that doesn’t seem to effect the fishing. Water was 56.
Hey Mike:
I got tired of waiting for someone else to say it, but a 3 pound fish is hardly a “beast” especially from Dragon. Holding a fish out from your body only makes it look bigger. On another note, when you lift a fish up like that, you have probably killed it, so I hope you didn’t practice clutch and release.
My 2 cents…It’s not always easy to determine the weight of a fish by a picture, for all I know maybe Mike is 6ft 8″ tall, maybe he’s 4 foot 10″ tall, body size/proportions of an individual can make a big difference. I can only guess by the picture probably approaching the 4lb mark. But what does it matter, it was a good report with a pic provided. And so what if he referred to it as a “beast”. Maybe it fought like one. I know if you fish for trout in local lakes of the lower mainland or even some of our local interior lakes that is a beast no doubt about it. It’s a nice fish, It’s those kind of reports that bring many people to flyguys.net, and negative feedback like this only discourages people from wanting to leave a report here. And I’ve seen alot worse than holding up a fish for a photo with one hand supporting it’s belly and one firm grip of the caudal peduncle. Probably killed it? I could justify a statement like that maybe if the guy had it by it’s gill plate…As for holding a fish out from your body, sometimes it just plain makes for some kewl photos it’s not always about trying to make it look big but a nice shot of the fish perfect example being this gnarly vedder white I took home yesterday, in no way was my brother who took the photo trying to make this fish look big. nothing to do with size nothing to prove to nobody. just good photography Good report Mike! Keep ’em coming! ; )
Nothing personal, Mike or Evan. Just stirring the pot. This site was starting to get stale. There’s nothing like a discussion over fish size or handling to get folks stirred up.
G
Nice bow Mike!
Great post Evan!
HackleJockey … yes it is that time of year, and yes fish size/handling is always a hot topic. I’m glad to hear you were just joking around. Maybe you should post up a pic of you showing us how it’s done …
I rarely take fish pics any more. I do take pics while fishing. Fish never leave the water (except to be bonked for dinner). Here’s one from a few years back (net is a Moby Whale for reference).
Beauty!
I try to do the same when I’m fishing solo but it’s much tougher when all the kids are onboard. Nice net hacklejockey…………looks familiar 🙂
And another example from the river.
That’s a kewl pic! It’s like she’s posing there for you. How do you train them to do that 😉
Have missed hundreds of shots. Once in a while the stars align. One nanosecond after these shots, it was a different story.
Hacklejockey:
Sorry to rattle you bud. Believe it or not that fish was 7 pounds on a new digital scale, weighed in the net of course. Im a huge advocate of catch and release and by no means will that fish die. i always have light grip on the tail and shes just sitting on my right hand. It was about 24″ and 7 3/4″ deep one side, i have big hands lol. I took that angle purely for photo purposes too because it was a beautiful fish.
Mike:
Not rattled – just disappointed. This is another fishing site that I will no longer support.
En avant
Hmmm. Are you joking about this too?
If not, what happened to offend you this time?
I wish you luck in your search to find a site where you share elitist views with all members and nobody offends you when they take pics of their fish.
Que sera sera
Well said
Any reports on Red Lake? Thinking of heading there tomorrow.
Sorry nothing recent but it was fishing good a couple weeks ago. Hopefully it’s still good for you tomorrow. Good luck!
I went yesterday (October 18th), beautiful weather and only a few boats on the water. Fishing was slow in the morning, but then picked up after 1 pm. Some nice rainbows (up to 4 lbs, lost one larger, but that is another story) and brookies all caught on a # 6 olive leech / woolly bugger pattern using a sink line and trolling at a moderate speed. Red seems to be more moody this October than in other years, but then again so has the weather for this month.
Thanks for the update! Highly appreciated!
Anyone been to Palmer meadows? Never been and it looks intriguing from the maps I have looked at. Apparently there are 5 types of trout aswell. Any feedback would be awesome. Thanks
Winter killed a few years back. Challenging access. Not worth the effort.
Hmm.. Challenging access to a stocked lake? Do they stick it with a helicopter? I guess I should just go try it and see
Palmer Meadows has 5 kinds of trout? I’m curious as to where you got that information from? I’ve never been aware that Palmer Meadows had any fish at all. I can’t find that it has ever been stocked either.
In any case, it get’s drawn down to almost nothing on most years, so I’d be surprised, even if any fish had managed to get in, that they’d survive long.
Great fishing yesterday up at Fred. Olive and black gold bead head leeches under indicators in 8 feet of water worked great. The surface temperature was down to 43F with lots of big fish cruising in shallow. Lots to the boat with nothing under 19″ and nothing over 24″. Saw a few 7+ pounders cruising shallow towards the end of the day. Throats pumps were full of gammarus around a size 14 and still alive. The road in sucked and was tough to find…………as usual. It won’t be long before it ices up. Hopefully it doesn’t winter kill this year.
Which way is best to get into Fred? Do you go in from the lache le jeune side or Ross-Moore?
Can any give me any information on gump lake? Fish size?road access?
Another beauty from Dragon from the 22nd. 7ft of water casting into the weeds on a boobie. No indicator that day lol. The girth was incredible and was the fatest fish I’ve caught. Was also 7lb. Water temp is dropping nicely now as it was 46 that day.
DAMN! Unfortunately unforeseen circumstances have limited my fall fishing this year so loving seeing pics like this! 😀
Thanks man! I feel for ya, Not much time left before freeze up though, gotta take every opportunity. Im getting out once a week until freeze up so atleast im getting some fishing in. And being from Prince George, Dragon is the closest lake that has trophy rainbows. Anything around town is not worth it if your looking for big boys. Back to Dragon this weekend i go as well 🙂
Hey Mike, if you are in PG and driving as far as Quesnel for trophy bows, I’ll give you a tip, head to Mackenzie. My dad lives there and I can tell you there are bows comparable to and even far bigger found up there than in Dragon. I will not name any of the lakes on here but point you in the right direction. I can tell you without a word of a lie i know for a fact there are absolute monster bows up there that are taken each year up to 36″ and and no I’m not talking about Williston. Tons of good fly lakes to explore up there…good hunting too
Evan, thanks for the reply. Dragon is only about an hour 20 away from me in PG. I think Mackenzie is closer to 2 unless the lakes are before the actual town. Are we talking stocked or wild lakes? Give me a Fbook message if you would. Im constantly on the hunt for big rainbows as im still trying to hit my goal of a 10 pounder.. haha
Fished Bleeker today with my Father inlaw and two friends. The surface temperature was 43.4F. There were lots of fish rising all over the lake and showing on the fish finder mainly from 10′-30′. Had a few light takes stripping in a micro leech and a tequila booby. I also broke off a big guy with a vicious take trolling a ruby eyed leech. My Father inlaw landed two nice 2 pounders for the BBQ trolling a chrome flatfish on a type 6 sinking line. The fish was packed full of hundreds of light green daphnia. Beauty day out with calm winds and 13 degrees at the lake. We are going to give Roche a try next week.
Awesome! Thanks for the report. We fished Horseshoe today … see below 😉
Beautiful day on Horseshoe lake today with fatso Brookies to about 3lbs. All taken on micro leeches in about 10′ of water. 🙂
Nice Brookie! Bleeker was frustrating for me yesterday. I haven’t had a day when the fish are exclusively eating daphnia in 15+ years. Are there any tricks on what flies to use? The fish was literally packed with hundred of daphnia that were still alive. I went through my entire flybox and tried all the usual stuff that has always worked great at places like Roche, Red, Pass and Island.
Great challenge nevertheless………
Cheers,
Chris
Ya daphnia, hyalella, chaoborus, etc. can make it tough. Sometimes (rarely) I can get close enough to make it work on the latter two but for the most part it’s attractors that usually end up picking up more fish. Yesterday at Horseshoe micro leeches did the trick even though the Brookies were stuffed with shrimp.
My daughter and I caught a couple small ones at horseshoe today. Lost a nice one right by the boat?
Nice! Thanks for the report! 🙂
Hello everyone. I would like to give a big thank you to all of you who have posted reports throughout the year. It is very much appreciated!! I also wanted to ask if anyone knows where I could find a handmade large wooden fly box, if not wooden a good large chironomid boat box. Seems all the larger boxes I come across are designed for streamers. another option would be finding the ripple foam to build my own box, can’t seem to find any of that bigger then the small box replacement pieces. Any feedback or help with this would be great! Thanks again and tight lines!
I would possibly build one or 2. Do you know the dimensions? last but not least do you tie your own flies? Maybe we could trade a fly box for flys?
Hello Jamie, thank you for the reply, looking for something in the 12-14×9-10 inch range. I do tie flies and have plenty of photos if you would like to see. Just let me know what your after and what kind of trade you’d like to do.
You might be interested in checking out a post on here called “the frugal flybox” (something like that) nothing fancy but I made one and it has worked well for me you can easily fit thousands of cronies in it. Double sidesided lightweight and floats if you dropped it in the lake somehow. I do believe plano now has cases with a watertight seal all around and if you look around I believe there are some that won’t require using a dremel as well
Thanks for the reminder Evan! This worked for me when I was looking for the exact same application.
https://flyguys.net/projects/the-frugal-fly-box
The only thing that I would do differently if I was to build another today is use slotted foam sheets 😉
Brandyn I made 2 of them when I wrote the article, one is still brand new, you’re welcome to test it out if you like 🙂
Evan, thank you very much for the feedback and Rob, this thing looks absolutely ideal. One box that will hold a lot of flies! Very creative! I would absloutely try it out, if there is anything I can do in return please let me know! Also, I noticed the fly guys decals were out of stock. A buddy of mine makes them, do you mind if I have some done up for my boat and pick up?
Cheers fellas and thanks again!
OK it’s yours come git it 😀
My decal guy no longer does it and I’ve been trying to find someone else so if you have a “guy” we should talk. In the meantime yes no problem if he makes some up for you.
Hey titanflyfisher,
I’ve always used the Pelican series tablet cases. They come with a thick rubber gasket, purge valve and are completely watertight to 10 meters. You just pull out the pre-formed foam and put in some of that ripple boat foam they sell or the foam of your choice. The cases are absolutely bomb proof and I’m sure you could stand on them with no damage. I bought the 1095 models six years ago and they still look new. I’ve also cut a 1″X1″ section out of the foam for the desecant patches you can buy through Pelican. They’ll wick up any moisture from wet flies, rain, etc and keep the rust off the hooks. My cases were $65 each at the time. Definitely not as good a deal compared to the homebuilt one.
My two cents…..,
Cheers,
Chris
Horseshoe, Tulip, Rose, Bleeker, Roche … and so it begins!
To everything there is a season
Wow this cold snap could put some ice on Monte!!
was watching folks pulling brookies out of rose/tulip yesterday while out hunting
Anyone know how thick the ice is at Red?
4″ a couple days ago.
Thanks Benny! Much appreciated