… Official flyguys.net Northern British Columbia, BC Interior, Kamloops Area Lakes & Rivers Ice Off 2019 Fishing Reports post!
As before, please use the comments/reply section at the bottom of this post to share and discuss your 2019 fishing reports, ice off reports, 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 (just include image link in your comment 😉 )!
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For those that would like to share a little more than just 2018 fishing reports we encourage you to submit your story (along with images/video links/etc) & we’ll write it up in a stand alone post for ya!
And continuing from last years debut …….
Historic (& Live for 2019) BC Interior Ice Off Chart
Keep providing ice off info in the comments below and we will update the 2018 column! Big thanks to Lando, Tom & Darryl! 😀
-=> check out the 2020 post here: https://flyguys.net/fishing-reports/flyguys-net-ice-off-2020-fishing-reports 🙂
That’s it folks … tight lines & good times to all! 😀
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Think of going up to Kamloops area for the week after easter for early spring camping. Any word on Pass lake or Isobel? Are there gates?
Checked Pass this morning. Wide open and lots of boats. For those with kids Isobel is open as well.
Forgot to mention, no gates.
Scuitto and Campbell are ice off
Thank you, SS updated 🙂
Anybody tried Salmon Lake yet? Heard they had a pretty bad summer kill last year, wondering if there’s any bigger fish left to chase.
Hey guys. You can put Dragon down for the 20th
Done! Thanks Mike! 🙂
Just got back from an unreal day of chironomid fishing with my wife and in-laws at a local lake in the 3000’ foot range.
Fantastic hatch of chironomids for most of the day with lots of swallows and nighthawks.
Had the first fish on within five minutes of setting anchor at 9:30am and it was steady every 5-10 minutes after that. Too many double headers to count.
We fished Rob’s Size 16 & 18 red rib, black bead chromies the entire day. Biggest fish was 24” and about 3.5-4 pounds with lots right at the 20” 2 pound mark and a split between Fraser Valleys and Pennasks.
We were catching little guys early on and then moved out to a little deeper water and got into some better fish.
Thanks again Rob for the great pattern and advice on a nearby, easy fishing lake for the family. My in-laws made out really well too. Glad the home built 8’ X 5’ barge floated 😉
Cheers,
Chris
Hey can anyone fill me in on what has happenned to White lake?
Seems like all the bigger fish are disappearing and alot of smaller fish now compared to years gone by..Maybe I have to go deeper but dont like fishing at the 40 foot level that much.
I fished White (one near tappen) last fall with 3 friends and we got skunked for 3 hours. 5 other boats got skunked too. Was dead and nothing surfacing or on fish finder. Beauty spot but wouldn’t go back. It was that spot or hidden lake. Will try hidden next time
Hi Glen,
We’ve fished White religiously every April / early May for the last 15 years and have noticed the same thing. Lots of 20-30+ fish days on chironomids but nothing over about 21-22”. The average size seems to be down around 16-17” now. They fight great but I’ve never tied into one of those monsters you hear about.
We mostly fish the bay in front of the fire hall, the sunken island and the triangle shaped shoal at the far left end in depths ranging from 18-55 feet. The fish seem to really key in on the bright green, red ribbed chromies early in the season in size 18-22’s.
There are times the fish come up on the shoals really shallow and you can sight fish them but still nothing over three pounds that I’ve seen. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Chris
Great review Chris. Thanks for sharing your areas of the lake that work for u
I went and checked the stocking reports for white lake and they have gone from 25000 fish per year to over double… there is now 45000 fish a year being put in. This would explain the decrease in size. It’s an unfortunate problem but this is the case with many of our lake. I don’t want to knock the bc stocking program because it is world class but they are over stocking many lakes that where once trophy lake and now full of small fish.
Oops I meant almost double, lol
I think the bigger problem at white is it’s proximity to people. It’s harder and harder to find big fish in lakes paved to the boat launch. Even dragon lake isn’t producing as big as before.
Fishing is popular and only going to get more popular with other activities becoming so expensive. The only lakes I consistently find over 3lb trout are down forestry logging roads an hour at least from a decent sized town
White Lake was world class fishing in the 70’s, I always had spring times off so fished it lots and had it dialed in. An average fish would be 3 lbs with 5’s and 6’s not uncommon and some 8+. Even Little White lake had some dandy’s then came the goldfish! Some guy at the end of little white had goldfish in a pond and as the story goes Fisheries directed him to get rid of them as the pond was too close to the shoreline so he dumped them into the lake. Didn’t take long and there were huge schools in little white and then they moved into the big lake. Totally messed up the food chain. I also noticed a change in the bottom vegetation. Dragon also has the goldfish problem as well.
My brother talks of fishing in the 80’s with many lakes like white was. Is there a well known lake with 3lb average rainbow and 8 lb not uncommon left ?
Seems to be just honey spots that you wouldn’t publicly share.
Roche and maybe sheridan off the top of my head.
Phillips has some monsters but it can be a tough lake some days. When you have a banner day there you won’t forget it.
Looks like from the cam and report that Sheridan is ice off today.
Just saw these on lone Butte fishing store site
LONE BUTTE SPORTING GOODS FISHING AND HUNTING UPDATES AND TIPS
2019 ICE OFF DATES
Canim Lake – April 9, 2019
Simon Lake – Apr 13, 2019
?108 Mile Lake – Apr 15, 2019
Irish Lake – Apr 18th (by end of Day)
Higgins Lake – Apr 19, 2019
Watch Lake – Apr 19, 2019
Horse Lake – Apr 19, 2019 (ice still on the east and west end)
Howard Lake – Apr 19, 2019
?Lac La Hache – Apr 20, 2019
Small Deka – Apr 22, 2019
Little Lac Des Roche – Apr 23
Hathaway Lake – Apr 23
Fawn Lake – apr 23
Ruth Lake – apr 23
Sulphurous Lake – Apr 24
?Deka Lake – Apr 24
?Sheridan Lake – Apr 24
Good find! Thanks Chaluga!
I am wondering if anyone has heard if Community is fishing well?
I assume ice was off about a week ago?
Was hoping to get into Blackwell lake in a couple weeks was wondering best camping around the area,,,is there vehicle acess,,,i can spot quad trails on Google earth but looks dicey. Idealy like to launch a boat but tubes are an option. Any advice on the area would be appreciated.
Heading up to the chilcotin region for first big trip of the year. Chance to catch some big bows. Feel like a kid before Xmas always for first real fishing of the year. Might hit dragon on Sunday. Any reports this year on how it is so far ? Turnover yet ?
How long after ice off are lakes around here finished turning?
Differs lake to lake and depends on a lot of factors. Here’s a good article on it … https://flyguys.net/fishing-information/still-water-fly-fishing/turn-over-lake-stratification-made-easy
according to a cabin owner at Glimpse Lake, April 20th was “ice off: date.
Thank you SS updated 🙂
Hit my favorite lake in chilcotin. Only was able to fish for two hours due to wind but caught two of these. Hope picture shows.
This is the average size with many in the 5 to 7lb range and a few around 10lb. You don’t catch 10 a day but almost always catch a 3 and often 5 to 7.No city within 3hrs. Just tiny towns. Haven’t found a spot like this around Kamloops/Merritt area or 100 mile house. Will keep trying to.
Thanks Chaluga ….I have only fished the chilcotin area once and the lake I went to was fairly close to Williams lake ….how was the road to the place you went and what did you fish out of …sorry for being snoopy ….I would like to go back to the area and am looking for basic info …no lake naming
I have found from just east of hanceville to nimpo lake is really good. There’s a couple dozen lakes in that area including my favorite. Most except Palmer and big stick can be reached by car. Great lake to take the kids is Raven lake. Lots of 1 to 2lb trout easily catchable. Hope that helps.
thank you , that’s really great….now I just have to get off my butt and start exploring .
Hey folks, to post pictures here it needs to be hosted somewhere else. Then all you need to do is …
1) find your image online
2) right click on it and select “copy image address”
3) paste that address here.
If possible please reduce your images to under 1000x (640 would be best). If they are too big they might not upload.
For example: this (without the spaces) …
https: // flyguys.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Trophy-Trout-161.jpg
will show as this …
Had a decent day yesterday at a lake between Kamloops and Vernon at 3800 feet . damsel fly nymph on medium sink line caught all the fish .