… Official flyguys.net Northern British Columbia, BC Interior, Kamloops Area Lakes & Rivers Ice Off 2015 Fishing Reports post!
… and hopefully we don’t have to add a winter kill section this year! 😯
As before, please use the comments/reply section at the bottom of this post to share and discuss your 2015 fishing & ice off reports.
Please try to include:
- the name of the lake or the general area 😉 (NOT Mandatory)
- what worked, what didn’t work, & as many other details as you care to share.
- a picture is worth a thousand words so please feel free to include one or two as well!
If you have a question regarding a particular lake, fly pattern or whatever, feel free to ask it here and we’ll try our best to get you an answer!
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For those that would like to share a little more than just a fishing report we encourage you to submit your story (along with images/video links/etc) & we’ll post it up for ya!
And last, but definitely not least … a BIG thank you to Surplus Herby’s for stepping up yet again to sponsor our yearly fishing reports post! Be sure to stop in for all your fishing & outdoor gear needs before hitting the water this year!
That’s it folks … tight lines & good times to all! 😀
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Hi all! Ended up at Salmon Lake last weekend. NOTHING for two days, then talked to a local that gave me the straight goods. Got 9 lovely identical fish under an indicator on a light olive chironomid at both ends of the lake, 2 in the morning then 7 in the afternoon, all in 18′ of water. Was WONDERFUL to finally get “dialed in’!!!
Went to Peterhope Tuesday, and even though the weather was weird, the fish seemed hungry. Got quite a few small ones, but a few around the 2-3lb mark as well. Chironomids were just not hatching, but saw a few tiny mayflies and caught a huge dragonfly nymph. Caught all fish there with black and red leeches and dragon nymphs. Came home Thursday night before the long weekend madness…not a huge fan when it gets crowded. Hope everyone has a lovely long weekend!!! 🙂
Good job Dawn and thanks for the reports! 😀
Fished Gladstone Lake yesterday off the Aspen Grove Princeton Hwy. Unreal action on micro leeches between 30-35 feet in 45 feet if water. We fished straight down on type 6 sinking lines. There weren’t many chironomids hatching but the fishing was still awesome.
Chris k, just curious were you using the micro leeches as you would with chironomids while anchored in the deep water? Would a car make it to the launch there at Gladstone? I have driven by many times, just never fished it or seen people fishing there, thanks, i have float tube. Thanks
Hey Nicole,
We fished exactly the same as chironomids. Just let the micro leeches hang with a quick twitch every minute or so. We didn’t retrieve them at all. There were lots of fish between 28-37 feet in 45 feet of water in the first part of the lake and fish 20-25 feet in the second pothole. Average size was 16-18″ with lots of bigger ones thrown in the mix too.
As for the car, 50/50 on the hill out from the boat launch. It’s pretty steep with loose gravel.
Thanks will give it a try, if road looks to steep will try lake further on highway, can always pack tube for a bit if needed
chris, landed about 5 fish and lost 4or 5 others. Had some other takes as well. Tried the method of fishing deep while anchored with the micro leeches but no takes. Ended up trolling our float tubes along the shoal and started to hook up. They fought pretty well for the car lake strain, quite the jumpers, thats the first time i have fished for that strain.
Great news Nicole, glad it went well for you! The high resolution colour fish finder made it pretty easy to park the micro leeches in front of the suspended rainbows on the weekend. It was a bit like cheating to be able to see the leeches move up and down when you rocked the boat. That’s great the trolling worked too. I’d like to try the little lake just south of Gladstone. I read that one is stocked with Fraser Valley Triploids 🙂
Hey Chris what is the make/model of that high res fish finder that you’re using please?
Hi Guys,
I’m using the Garmin Echomap 50 S from Costco. My wife and son gave it to me for Christmas. I believe it was around $70o with the Garmin Lakeview software. The resolution is nothing short of astonishing. I’m using the 77khz wide angle transducer beam. I had been using a Lowrance X-135 over the past 8 years which I paid $550 for. Prior to the X-135 I owned a few cheap Humminbird and Bottom Buddy models. The cheap ones were good for depth and nothing else. The Lowrance showed fish and the thermocline well but would never pickup a fly or split shot at 35-40 feet.
At Edith Lake I could clearly see the swivel and tiny split shot moving up and down 35 feet below the boat fishing chironomids on type 6 lines. I was fishing both rods static in rod holders. I knew 110% my chironomid was right on the fish’ nose. As soon as a few fish appeared all it usually took was a little rock of the boat and one rod was down. If there weren’t fish on the finder after ten minutes I pulled anchor and moved to a spot with fish.
At Gladstone I could watch the bead headed micro leeches moving up and down on the fish finder 35 feet down. When I clamped on the haemostats and through them over the side to set the depth you could easily track the huge vertical bar to the bottom with each strip of the line. This was all with the gain set to auto. If it’s anything like the Lowrance an even better picture is probably possible with some manual tweaking.
IMHO it’s a huge advantage to know 110% that your fly is at the precise depth the fish are at and that the arches you are seeing on the fishfinder are 110% fish. I’m looking forward to getting some more time with it this June/July when I get back from work.
Hope this helps………….
Cheers,
Chris
sounds like a beast of a finder. I know how much a good finder can make a difference, i got the marcum showdown last year for ice fishing, and what a difference that made. You could track your jig and watch the fish come right at it, and as you said if there are no fish in the area time to move. For flyfishing though unfortunately i have to rely on watching for fish and fishing the structure areas as i don’t have a finder for my tube.
Damn! O.o
Chris did you pick up many shiners with your finder, or was it easy to distinguish from regular trout?
Hey Nicole,
I wasn’t even thinking about shiners. I just assumed the fish on the sounder were all rainbows. Out of the two dozen or so fish we landed none were shiners. I’ll pay closer attention to the size of the arches next time we fish there.
Cheers,
Chris
Hey guys i was wondering. I was at island (big ok) lake 2 years ago with really bad winter kill everywhere. Would it be a safe bet to go this year?.
I went at Island Lake last Friday (29th May), too windy for me.
Only tow hours fish, no luck, no rise fish, no other fisherman.
Calling lake is good but fhis is small.
For those of you looking for fishfinder mounting solutions for float tubes and such check out fish finder mounts.com or floattubefanatics.com. they have some great ideas.
great sites, can’t wait to outfit my pontoon boat!
Hatheume
Any reports out of Hatheume. Heading there in two weeks with a “few” friends. 32 people! Apologies in advance for the ruckus – many are new to fishing, others this is the only time out every year, and only a few know what they are doing. If you like peace and quiet out on the lake, stay away that weekend!
Anyways, we are hoping to get people into fish, especially the newbies, and we almost exclusively will be chironomid fishing.
Heard fishing has been good, what colours and sizes are good for this lake, this time of year. Wondering if bombers have started yet.
thnks
Just a friendly reply I don’t know if you’ve been there , but there aren’t that many camp spots..
we are at the resort – thanks
so how about those flies? 🙂
Chronies, chronies, chronies. lol Left from the campsite to the end of the lake where the private cottages are. We were there later in the year, so we were using sedge nymphs. An old guy there gave me a chronie that was brown, copper rib,peacock herl and a brown bead. Said he’s been using it there for 20 years. Also gave me a dark gunmetal one. Also ol’ faithful black leeches. I liked the simiseal with maroon in the tail.
Also trolled the far side across from the campsite with pretty good success, and right in front of the resort cabins, then cutting across to the bay with the private cabins. That’s where Bob got spooled and lost a really beauty fish right at dark. The road in was hell, but worth every minute! Good luck!!!
Just stayed at Hatheume for a week,Chronie action was slow we did better with black leeches with a little sparkle in them and targeted them from the Resort to the island,We got warned the first night and it was just 5 guys quiet time is 10 lol Tight lines!!!
Hey guys, can anyone recommend a few lakes that my girlfriend and I can go camping at for a few days and catch some decent fish? She’s new to the sport and would love to reel some in on her new rod! I havnt managed to go out this year much do to work so I’m out of the loop fishing wise.
Hey Adam ,
Take the girlfriend to Roche. You can camp at the lodge and still get all the amenities. Pool, hot tub restaurant and it’s been fishing really good as of late.
Hey guys, any one been up to Forrest lake (cariboo) in the past couple years? I haven’t been in a couple years and herd some rumours of hundred of boats on the water. Not lookin for reports just if its a gong show or not? Thanks.
I was there two years ago … GONG! But the biguns are there if you can put up with it. 🙂
Thanks
100 boats sounds like an extreme estimate although I have no doubt it is a busy lake. This perfectly illustrates why names of small productive lakes should not be spread around on the internet. It can literally ruin the experience on any given lake. Word of mouth can certainly generate crowds but an internet post reaches such a wide audience that lakes can be overrun with people. I can think of a few examples where this has happened in past years.
I understand what your saying Art but how are people to learn and venture to new lakes without a little info,like I have said before I let anyone know what and where im fishing its what you do with the info and how you use it .
Yes, but there are certain lakes that simply cannot handle the pressure. I am talking about small, lightly stocked lakes with big fish. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to tip the balance. There are so many well known lakes around here that produce year after year and are perfectly acceptable to discuss on an open forum. Many of these lakes have great fish and steady action despite the crowds.
People don’t need all the intel on every lake they visit. I never had any intel on any lake that I visited pre-internet and I still go into a couple of lakes blind every season. It can be more fun that way when you have no expectations.
This is one of the hardest things to balance when running a site like this. I would truly like to publicly share every lake with everyone interested but, as Art has pointed out, that could devastate smaller lakes that couldn’t take the pressure so doing so would be irresponsible. In addition to the lakes shared that can handle the pressure and still produce big fish, exploring will also find you some gems. Art referred to it as “going blind” but in reality, with the stocking charts, google earth and tips and hints from local fishing sites like this it’s really not that difficult to figure out the lakes which should have big fish potential. Checking out the shortlist you come up with is the fun part, with some frustration thrown in when you really get it wrong … but it’s all part of the learning curve. 😀
You want a challenge? Fish Stump. It is full of big fish. Try and catch one. Anyway, I agree with Art, once a lake becomes a darling of the internet, it is done. The Pass experience of the low 2000s was repeated at Forrest. Goofs sitting on a spot for 12 hours, leaving their boats anchored out, etc. etc. I can even go back to the early Dragon days when it was referred to as Jumping Chub and any number of other euphemisms. There are so many good lakes it always amazes me when the mobs descend on a particular one and literally fish it to death.
All good points………….The “secret ” lakes are definitely worth keeping quiet over. That’s probably why it’s pretty rare to see other people fishing when you do venture off the beaten path to them. I spoke to a guy at Edith this year the Thursday before the long weekend that was up from California in his RV with four other guys in trucks and campers. They always go to Roche to fish with two local friends but couldn’t find a spot. They ended up at Edith because of the online reports from a few sites and a thumbs up from Wholesale Sports in town. As Rob mentioned, Google Earth and stocking charts play a huge part of back road educated guesses. There’s enough choices to keep you busy for a lifetime. Let the gong show stay at Roche, Forest, Island and Sawmill 🙂
Personally I don’t feel the need to be sharing to much info on line other than the well known spots with easy access. I think most guys who have little honey holes have earnt them. So that’s what I’d tell all these guys fishing for info. Get out and earn it! A tank of gas, maps,gps ect! And when you finally do find that secret spot it becomes a very rewarding experience. Over the years I’ve even found lakes not on the stocking list, and I’m sure as hell not saying a word about those, not even my regular fishing buddies. Because I know even though friends are friends somebody’s Gona talk. It’s a fact of life
I also got spooled in the same spot!!!
Just saying lol.
Hey guys. Going fishing next week near Falkland at a higher elevation lake. Just wondering with the early ice off this yr what fly’s should i use to start the day. What is hatching in the lakes? Will the fish be deep after this weeks hot weather? I will look for anything on the surface once i get there and look for hatches as the day goes by. But this fly fishing thing and fishing is fairly new to me. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
You should expect to use damsel and mayfly nymphs along the drop-offs during the day and caddis pupae and adults in the evenings (if you are lucky). Chironomid hatches will likely be sparse but keep an eye out for them anyway. If there is no apparent hatch then target the drop-offs with small leeches.
Good luck!
Thank you Art. Fishing was not too bad. Caught fish on everything mentioned except caddis and damsels. I never really tried it though. But there was a nice hatch of damsels but being new to fishing i did not realize what they were :(. Leeches worked really well. But learned lots, had fun. And can’t wait to get out again. I’m Hooked !!!! Pumped a couple fish. They had worms and snails…. Not sure on how to imitate those though..What should one do when fish are feeding on them…??
Hey Dru, good to hear you had some success. If you see damsels on future trips, anchor in really shallow water (or troll slowly along the drop-offs) and cast out over the drop-off and retrieve the nymph into the shallows as the naturals tend to swim from deeper water to the shoreline where they will crawl up a bulrush or cattail and emerge into an adult. If you don’t have a damsel nymph pattern a green halfback or green microleech should be adequate. As for worms (were they bloodworms?) and snails being in the stomach samples this indicates that the fish are feeding right on the bottom so the most important thing will be that your fly is fished along the bottom. I have never bothered fishing snail patterns but I know of people that do. They can either be fished under an indicator, or more effectively, on a fast sinking line. When dragging patterns along the bottom I like to use my Type 4 sinker and let the pattern lay on the bottom (preferably over a mud or marl as a weedy bottom will hang you up frequently) and give a short, sharp pull every 10 seconds or so. This will cause the fly to create a disturbance on the bottom which the fish will key in on.
Thanks again Art. No they were not blood worms. They were kind of a pale whiteish blue. I haven’t been out on lakes too much so i am not sure at all what they are. But my friend fishes quite a bit and he told me what he thought they were. I dont think i will try the snail pattern but ill definitely remember to fish the bottom if i pump one that has snails in it.
I had checked out this site last year when planning one of our fishing trips and got some good info so I wanted to share the fishing report for my families trip up last weekend in hopes that it helps someone else plan their trip. I don’t believe that any of the lakes I am going to mention are secrets so I hope I don’t offend anyone. We went up Thursday through Monday and fished in the Roche lake area. Thursday when we were setting up camp the wind was blowing pretty good and Roche was empty. We tried going out and fishing in some of the coves later in the day but just could not get out of the wind so we headed back to camp. Friday we fished Earnest and caught a few fish (3) trolling with a black Doc Spratley and a olive leach. The road was pretty hairy going in but that is the norm for getting into that lake. On Saturday we fished Bulman. We had the lake to ourselves which is great but we only caught one small fish after 4 hours. This has pretty much been the story two out of the last three years for us at that lake but it sure is an awesome looking lake and I will probably keep going back in hopes that it someday holds some good fish. We also swung by Frisken and hung out for a half hour or so but saw no action on the water and nobody was fishing it either so we moved on. On Sunday and Monday we fished Roche and had a lot of luck. Little did we know there was a decent sized fishing tournament on Roche for Saturday and Sunday which drew a large crowd but the fish didn’t seem to care.My daughter had a great time and we caught some nice fish. Again trolling a black or brown leech seemed to be the ticket for us. There were some folks chironomid fishing but I have never been great at it and from what I saw they weren’t doing any better than we were. Overall it was an awesome weekend with good weather and I can’t wait until next year. I really appreciate this site and I hope this helps someone else out who is planning a trip with their family.
Thanks for sharing Bemmons! 😀
Heat wave coming this weekend. Has anybody been to Salmon Lake recently? Just looking for a report if the algae bloom is in full swing. I have tried getting an anwer by calling the resort but I don’t get a straight answer.
Thanks in advance.
Been out a few times in the last couple weeks trying different places to see if I can find some productive fishing. It’s been really tough, only averaging 6-8 fish days with half or more pretty small. I had one day of outstanding dry fly action on Englishmen lake last weekend. Hosli lake road wasn’t bad at all I made it in with my stock 2001 highlander without any problems but fishing didn’t live up to what im used to. in 2 days we got 12 fish but only 3 over 2 pounds. Peter hope fished well at first light then died very quickly as water temps rose extremely fast max it got too was 77 at 4 in the afternoon. Hope everyone is having a great summer and finding some great fishing! make sure to handle your fish even more carefully in the heat as the recovery time is longer for the trout.
Yes the heat is certainly making things a bit more difficult. Very good reminder re careful handling during the longer recovery … thanks for that 🙂
4000Ft seems to be the threshhold for me. Any lake under 4k is slow with water temps near 70. Places like dairy lake above 4k water still around 65 to 67.
Just to let all know Kokanee in stump are plentiful and fat ! Fish to 3 lbs get out and fish them or they are going to die of old age. Finding them is the trick they move from day to day! 10 to 20 feet is the ticket so far! Use the typical Kokanee gear and be out early.
That is awesome Wayne got to luv those fat Kokanee! Thanks for the depth tip. Unfortunately for me I have not personally had much luck finding them 🙁 but I have been using flies and maybe just haven’t found anything they’re interested in yet. Can you elaborate a bit more on the gear and technique? I just nay have to break out the spinning rod 🙂
I always find it strange there’s not too many people out on stump or monte in the summer targeting Kok’s, see more water-skiers than anything. Such a great summer fishery when the bow’s are being lethargic. I been curious if anyone know how they are doing in Paul this year? Been thinking of checking it out. On another note I’ve heard they are more prone to take a fly in Bridge or Sulphurous but no first hand knowledge as I have always wanted to catch them on flies but have yet to step up to the challenge, although I do have some unorthodox flies ready that I think might work for when the time comes.