Late Season Lunkers!

Timbre & his beauty silver bullet Kamloops rainbow trout!

It was a quick jaunt to Kamloops for the wife’s school reunion. Just before leaving my son Timbre’s schedule came free so I packed for some tubing. I made sure the bag had two float tubes, two waders, two sets of flippers but evidently I didn’t see the need for raingear. Thinking back this is strange since we just got 362 mm of rain in the last 8 weeks in the North Peace. For you oldschoolers like me that’s 14 inches! 😯 I’m waiting for Cedar to start growing!

Long drive down with many delays south of Chetwyn where I counted 12 washouts off the Highway. Finally got to the in-laws in Kamloops Thursday and with Friday being Grads only night I got a hold of Rob for some input on a couple of lakes I had zeroed in on. We were thrilled to hear that Rob was available to come fishing with us and he suggested we meet at his place Friday morning.

Friday dawned a beautiful day and we gathered in Rob’s driveway for coffee, snacks and a plan for the day. Jeff, with a stoic effort, joined us after a previous “engagement” the night before. Such dedication! Rob asked us if we wanted to catch a bunch of fish or try a lake with less action but a chance at a good size bows. Timbre answered right away for me and I think Jeff with “Big Fish”! So …  with that settled we headed for the hills!

Upon arriving at the lake, and after blowing up our tubes and getting a low down on productive spots from Rob & JeFF,  we headed out onto the water. Rob and Jeff hunkered down out in front of a weed bed while Timbre and I trolled down to another weed bed at the end of the lake. Timbre had the intermediate cameo line on and a green leech that was super productive when I had been down in the spring. He was getting heavy hits all the way down the lake but no hook-ups. I was using my #6 sinktip with a cactus muddler and not much was happening. Timbre continued to troll the weed bank while I set up for some indicator fishing. After a couple of hours with only one hit it was time for a change. And to accommodate this it started to rain. At first it was only a drizzle but after a couple of heavy moments I looked at Timbre and said “Shore?” He just laughed and said, too late we’re all ready soaked. Gotta love it a die hard fisherman in the making! 🙂

It was shortly after he had a huge hit taking his rod tip into the water then nothing. I told him to check and see if he still had his fly. He brought in his line and said yea it’s still there but then added the hook is kinda straight. While he was changing out his fly I finally had a solid hook-up and after a good fight landed a beautiful 3 – 4 lb ish fish.

... the good old cactus muddler does it again!

The rain had positively affected the fishing so there was a bright side..sorta.

Earlier Rob had landed what looked like a real nice fish. We had talked earlier about us having to bring a fish back to the in-laws and he asked if I wanted to keep it. I said definitely and it turned out to be a 6.6 lb. beauty that filleted-out like a Coho salmon later that day.

... and nice slab for the inlaws BBQ!

With the primary objective complete we were able to release the rest of the fish.

That first fish did not have much in his stomach but tiny shrimp but one caught later by Jeff was stuffed with good size shrimp – it looked like they had finally started feeding – about time as it was now getting on in the afternoon!  Timbre and I had started to wind drift down to the other end of the lake when his rod doubled over! He had gone through his fly box when he changed flies and gone to another green fly, one of our Pete Lake Specials – a simple but effective fly tied on a #10 2X hook with a green marabou tail, green cactus ice chenille body, gold bead head and yellow mallard sparse collar. Something in the lake liked it and was now spinning Timbre around in his tube! I pulled in tight by him and was able to tail the fish and drop it on his tube apron. Timbre kept the Northern Division’s honor in tack with a silver bullet around 5 lbs!

Timbre's 5ish lb Kamloops Rainbow!

After that it was in for shore lunch/supper of fresh rainbow and smokies before sloshing into the jeep and heading back to the in-laws soaked and satisfied! It was a blast finally hooking up with Rob and Jeff and I want to thank them again for a great day in the Kamloops area!

Timber & Gord (FGND)

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