… 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.
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I apologize this isn’t an ice-off report or inquiry, but thought it was worth a share…
We normally head into the interior to fish, but patience isn’t one of my better qualities.
So while waiting for ice-off out there, we decided to take advantage of this beautiful weather closer to home.
They are not trophies, but getting into these all day long with a lake to ourselves… it was worth taking a day off work.
No apology necessary NOM … reports are very welcome here too! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Pristine conditions. Water temp…51 degrees
Was hoping to head up to the kane lakes area the week of the 22nd any idea if the lakes are close to ice off yet or if they should be getting close by then?
thanks.
Danflyfish, I emailed Corbett lodge a couple days ago (being near Kane) and this is the reply…
“The ice is still on the lake and will be until April. Although it is warm during the day, it is still freezing hard at night and the altitude of the lake is pretty high”.
22nd for Kane Valley maybe if the temp stays above freezing overnight and they get some rain. Forecast is just that. Wind is just a given there…
I also emailed 71/2 Diamond as they are near Pike Mntn… Reply: “The ice is usually off just before the 1st of May, although this year we expect it to be off two,or three weeks earlier”.
It’s probably worth the drive to Kane though, as your worst case scenario is a drive down Hwy 5a towards Princeton where beyond Pike Mntn, the lake elevations get progressively lower. (and there’s a bunch). Martin Lake in Princeton will be ice-free (only 675 metres) and good for an over-niter. Decent size Fraser Valley rainy’s there- up to 6 lbs
Hey Danfly, if you do make the trip, some pics and reports will be much appreciated…
Just returned from Arizona this morning so I will most likely make the trip in the next few days, ill let you know what the conditions are like.
Well trip in to Isabel lk sucked, gate there now. Active logging so went to pass lk. I will post a pic
Ollie
So Ollie are you saying there is a locked gate preventing access to Isabel? If you’re having trouble getting a pic to upload you can email it to [email protected] and I’ll add it to the post for you 🙂
pic is of pass lk did’ntthink of the gate
Ya I should remember to take more pics got lots of pass lake. By the time I could see via the phone the 2 bald egales and about 25 ravens had flown away. So my mind says WHY there, left hand side of lk out in front of the house about 100yrs out. Ollie
Yes there’s a gate there now. for a Handy-caped lake It makes no sense at all. And worse thing is, it was never publicized to the public so must be local government mess up
Ollie
Edith this afternoon.
Wow i think this is the earliest for ice off that I’ve seen at Edith. Thanks for posting JoJoNed!
This area, looking south was still mostly ice 20 minutes before this pic was taken. Then, whoosh, all clear! Posted a video on FB if you want to see the action at the north launch.
According to an eyewitness account on FlyBC today, Monte and Stump are both fully iced off.
Yes, Monte Lake is fully iced off. Drove by today, March 16th, 2015 at about 16:30 and there were 2 or 3 boats out on the lake fishing.
Thought to take my kid up to Deep as I usually do a couple times each year and figured the ice would be off or at least partially. I see some scumbags decided it was a good idea to install signs on both sides of the road on the upper half of Ida Lane saying if you park there you will be towed. What a bunch of BS that is!
Don’t know anything about the signs but I would be tempted to say the hell with them. On another note, Deep Lake was on the list of suspected winterkills this season…
List of suspected winterkills this season?
Haven’t seen it but would be interested – where to look?
Ernest, Bulman, Frisken, John Frank and Deep. Roche was mentioned as a potential partial kill candidate as well.
where does this information come from? Is there a site or source for possible winter killed lakes?
http://www.gofishbc.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/region3winterkill.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Follow the link…it is information gathered by fisheries biologists and techs through the ice. A hole is cut in the ice and a probe (that measures the dissolved oxygen concentration of the water) is lowered into the water. A reading is taken at the surface and at 1 m intervals throughout the water column. Trout survival becomes compromised at an oxygen concentration of approximately 2.0 mg/L. The most oxygenated water is at the surface and becomes progressively less as you move lower in the water column. A decision is made on the prospect of winterkill based on these oxygen levels both in terms of what the maximum oxygen concentration found beneath the ice is, as well as the depth of the oxygenated water.
Hope that helps.
Art
Just great Art – Thank you very much!
Tom
Thanks Art! Much appreciated!
Is hidden lake outside enderby open? Looking to take my brand new spratley out ????
Jacko Lake today after work
looks about 95% ice free. Outlet bay still has ice. Inlet bay looked good to go from where I was standing????
McConnell Lake as of today. Still frozen but a little water around the edges. Crazy how the ice is just flying off these lakes this year!
Sorry the pics are sideways. Not sure why it uploads them this way
Fixed 😉
Hey somebody needs to get Steve to shake his head and learn how to stock lakes around kamloops. In all my life fishing here I have never caught such an over abundance of tiddler trout!! Jacko, six mile,Beaton and edith and I can keep going!! What does this guy have a grade 12 Education!! It’s a joke were all paying for this program! I’m going to start fishing walloper bigger fish! Any body else willing to get in on this?
Hi Wayne,
So, I do feel your pain with regards to the amount of lakes that are seemingly overstocked.
Having said that, I think it’s safe to say that managing the stocking prescriptions for our local lakes is probably not as easy as it would seem on the surface. As angling effort, fish survival and management objectives change in certain lakes, those changes also affect other lakes. Couple that with the fact that a staff of two with an extremely limited budget and other job duties outside of stock assessment and managment basically manage all our region’s angling lakes, and you can start to understand the challenge.
It appears as though you, much like me, have developed a taste for lakes with big fish. While you may be a great angler and may not have trouble catching good numbers of fish even in our tougher fisheries, consider that you are the exception in that regard. Most lakes with “big” fish do not give their prizes up easily. Management objectives of our lakes change sometimes, and recently, there has been more of a focus on creating fisheries that will promote angler success, thus having more potential to recruit new anglers to the pasttime. With the new funding models (program funding is directly proportional to license sales), recruiting and retaining anglers is extremely important. So while you accept tha getting skunked a few times is part of fishing, when it happens a lot, people tend to throw in the towel. Now I’m not implying that they’re trying to turn our region into a bunch of Walloper specials, but there is not a large benefit in managing all of our local lakes for maximum size.
At this point, I don’t think I’m joining you in “getting in on this”. What you might get better mileage out of, rather than throwing out useless insults, is communicating your observations and preferences to Steve, listening to his responses, and understanding the challenges and whether or not there is potential for some management adjustment that can be made to accomodate more anglers, hopefully aligned with your views and expectations.
Best of luck.
Ben
I just have a question… If they want to have trophy class fishery why don’t they stock the rainbows at a larger size so they become trophy fish sooner? or does it not work like that. IS the cost for that to much?
Hey no worries it is what it is ! A dollar driven industry u have to play by the numbers or its your ass! It’s just unfortunate our lakes have to suffer as a result! But it’s , still the responsibility of our managers to properly maintain our fisheries ? I’m all for family lakes and plentiful opportunity! But when 90% of the fish in a lake like jacko are 11 inches and smaller sombody needs to be held accountable ! It’s that simple! Sorry but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it’s a duck!
Wayne, don’t worry about Jacko…there are big fish in there. I only got into a couple of good ones as well while I was out there last week. They are there but for whatever not many are showing themselves yet. The stocking at Jacko has not changed much in many years and it produces big fish every year. 6 Mile and Edith on the other hand are overstocked as they are managed to provide some opportunities for a family fishery (not at the level of a Walloper). As Benny stated, managing these lakes is not as simple as it may seem. With limited staff and resources our biologists rely heavily on angler input to consider revising future lake stocking plans. For this reason, any issue that you have should be directed to Kamloops Ministry office.
Cheers,
Art
Ben – Thank you very very much for your reply to Wayne. I have refrained from replying, as I am afraid that my reply would not have been as restrained and polite as yours. You are indeed a gentleman. and I thank you.
Sincerely – Tom
No need to be polite I’m not scared. The truth is the truth people sell out all the time! Loss of habitat for mines, timber, water right I can go on and on! Like I said it is what it is I’m just glad it’s not me!
Hi everyone,
I am not going to say if our lake are under or over-socked. What I will say is that relative to many places I have lived and travelled to fish, BC – especially the interior, is one of the best managed fisheries. Although it has been a steep learning curve I have started to figure out some lakes and I have found that timing and tactics can yield big fish from many of our area lakes. Timing can be important. There are some lakes that I can go to at certain times of the year and I expect big fish. I have narrowed down certain time windows for certain lakes over the past few years and I am almost always going to get 5 + pound fish if I go on those dates and the weather is good (not to windy, high pressure). What I have been trying to do is figure out how to time it all just right so I can move from one lake to the next every 10 days or so. I am getting there. So, what am I trying to say, well that there are big fish in many of our lakes – Six Mile, Morgan, Stump, Roche, Red, Jacko, and the list goes on and on. We are spoiled, but it still takes time, gained wisdom, and taking good notes to catch big fish…even if the lakes were socked in such a way to produce only big fish it would still take those ingredients to catch them.
Cheers,
Darryl
My focus is on small, less accessible lakes, so obviously doesn’t include the easily-accessed high use lakes on your list but the general area isn’t that different. My comments are more about general stocking in the region.
In most cases, stocking has stayed exactly the same for many years. When changes have occurred it’s almost always been either a switch to 3N fish and/or a reduction in numbers. A handful of my favorite lakes have gone through the same cycle: they used to get ~3000 2N fish, then 3N, then only 2000, and now some of them are getting 1500 fish per year or only every second year. Things are always changing and what worked very well for a number of years can suddenly seem like an over-stocking. There are just too many variables and managing so many locations with so few resources ends up being a largely reactionary process. By the time it becomes common knowledge that Lake X, which used to produce 7 pounders, is now teeming with 12″ers it’s already a couple of years too late to prevent the change and whatever measures are taken likely won’t show results for several years to come. It’s quite easy for a lake to go through 5-10 years of not producing large fish in between cycles. The great thing about that is that anglers are fickle and the lake will fall out of favour. It’s worth it when you’re one of the few who rediscovers a lake. Just keep your mouth shut as long as possible…
Interesting debate – the proverbial can of worms. As someone who fishes at least 150 days a year in the Kamloops district and whose group of cronies includes many of the best local anglers, I offer the following comments. If you want to catch small fish – target. small fish. Instead of sitting on a pod of tiddlers – say in the stick pile at the outlet bay of Jacko – move elsewhere. I did so the other day and was rewarded. The same goes for most lakes. Various age classes tend to congregate – especially at this time of year. Anyway, small fish eventually grow into big fish. On the subject of big fish – what happens when a lake acquires a reputation as a “big fish” lake – like say Pass a few years ago, Forrest and Sheridan recently and even Dragon back in the 70’s? The lake draws a certain type of competitive “angler” who is more interested in bragging rights and “clutch and grin” photos. These angler travel as a group, camp together and tend to treat areas of a lake as their private domains. They will sit on an area of a lake for an entire day even going so far as to leave their boats anchored out overnight to prevent “locals” from fishing there. They seem to have no problem crowding in on someone who they have spotted playing a big fish – Roche comes to mind. Anyway, enough of that – there are hundreds of lakes around Kamloops and many of them contain large fish. If you want to catch them – don’t rely on the internet and walkie talkies – do some prospecting and you will find them.
Personally this conversation is about timing……..in the 14 years I have lived in the central interior I have sat on the edge of Dragon Lake waiting for the ice…up to 2 days till she starts to go…..now I used to do the same thing at Roche when I lived in the south……..only a handful of those days over the years were outstanding….I mean…….one after the other…….those days all had the same thing in common…….calm, high pressure and nothing but sunshine! Last year as Dragon opened on April 28th…my birthday…..and what a gift…..memories of Bows agreeing to take a fly! Yippee!!! One after another…the next day….nada!
I spent plenty of time with my grandfather in a boat…..when I would complain about not catching fish…he would say…….”it’s not about the fishing young man”…now that I’m older and have time in….I get it!
Some days are diamonds some days….I read a book! BC has the best freshwater fishery in Canada…hell on The Globe! I’ll be in the south…….once the lakes turn and there’s some oxygen in the water…….bring on the bugs!
Kevin Beatty
Prince George BC
Hey guys, new to this site, have enjoyed reading the stories and comments so far. I am planning a trip to Missezula lake the weekend of April 3. Just curious to know what the ice off situation is as well as the surrounding lakes. Any info is appreciated! Thanks.
Hi Mike, no idea about that specific lake but I will guarantee you that it will be ice-free by the Easter weekend (based on its elevation), if it isn’t already. There are several other lakes in the general area up the Pike Mtn Forest Service Road which is to the west of Missezula Lake. Kump Lake might be an interesting place to try.
Best of luck,
Art
That’s great Art, thanks for the info!
Missezula will definitely be good to go but all of the small lakes within ~10km are up over 4000′ and I wouldn’t bet on any of them for Easter. The exceptions, which I assume will be fishable are Bluey and the Hornet area lakes.
If none of those work out and you’re looking for smaller lakes I’d follow Mr. Vandelay’s advice and go west to the other side of the 5A.
Cheers Adam, thanks very much!
Hi,
Any word on the ice conditions at Roche Lake? Possible winter kill ect. Thanks
Finally got a chance to check out Roche with my own eyes and … cruised the whole lake (except the still frozen flats) and never saw one dead fish/floater/eagle! There were fish moving in the shallows at the north end of the lake and saw a few rods with fish on! I’m going to predict the flats will be ice free by April 1 🙂