They say in British Columbia, you could fish a lake a day for the rest of your life. But to do that, you must start somewhere. In early June, we set out to an area near the Nicola Valley that the crew has been going to since they were children. However, this trip was different. We setup our basecamp at a lake we all love and for the next eight days we would drive from lake to lake, using only logging roads in search of new Rainbow Trout hiding places.
During the week we had challenging weather, a bit of it all. The only thing that was constant was change. We suspect that the massive daily shifts in barometric pressure took the fish out of their regular feeding habits. We tried it all and while there were certainly beautiful fish into the net, the numbers were not what we had grown accustomed to. Through perseverance, hundreds of fly changes and different techniques, we were able to catch our fair share. A huge resource in planning this trip and on all of our trips in finding different lakes and how to access them was the Backroad Mapbook for this region.
We had some success on leeches and no luck on chironomids. The two techniques that moved us towards something resembling consistency were; stripping scuds along the shoals and using Daphnia blobs with long sinking lines.
After spending hours in the truck searching for new waters and bigger fish, we discovered that what we came for was right in front of us - the home lake, the one we've been coming to for decades, proved to be the most productive for fishing.
But in the end, was it really it about the fish? I will soon forget each fish that was caught or which handtied fly I caught them with, but I will not forget the times spent cooking over fire, crib games huddled under our favorite tarp, or the laughter echoing across the lake.
FISH ON
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