BC lakes fly recommendations?

[Aaron Meredith]

All this talk about BC lakes gets a fellow ta thinkin. What’s the latest you’d go into this area? I’m thinking about camping at Lost Horse around the end of Sept or beginning of Oct.
I have access to a pop up bed camper on a 4 wheel truck. I also have a nice 23’ trailer. What might your thoughts be? Would it be better to use the trailer and camp closer to the main hyw and drive to the various lakes in my 4x4 for the day. Or forgo the creature comforts and use the pop up at Lost Horse? Thanks in advance!

That time should be good for fishing, but at that elevation you'll need to be ready for everything with the weather. Attached are a few pictures from Sept 17th, 2021 at a few lakes near Lost Horse. The lakes won't fully freeze over until at least late October, but you will still be dealing with ice in the guides long before that.

You can get a big camper in as far as Deer Lake, but past that the road gets really sketchy. I have seen popups at Lost Horse, but I wouldn't want to be taking one in there. Plus having your bigger trailer will be more comfortable if the weather is bad. Either place you stay there will be a ton of fishing options.

 

[Aaron Meredith]

Can't leave well enough alone... the Tom Thumb seemed so fragile and sinkable, that I had to monkey with it for a foam version

Is there ice dubbing on the 1st version? (hard to tell from the picture). I would go with either just thread or some dry fly dubbing for the body. The foam version looks great. I generally use elk hair instead of deer hair for my dries...not sure if it makes a difference, but never had an issue getting them to float. Any type of big sedge fly will work...Mikulak is also great. I always add floatant to help keep the fly on the surface. 1 or 2 fish will probably require a fly change regardless of your dry fly preference. I always make sure I have plenty of dry flies tied up and have a 2nd dry rod rigged when the fish are rising. I'm looking forward to getting up there on the 1st of July.

 

[Northern]

Is there ice dubbing on the 1st version? (hard to tell from the picture). I would go with either just thread or some dry fly dubbing for the body. The foam version looks great. I generally use elk hair instead of deer hair for my dries...not sure if it makes a difference, but never had an issue getting them to float. Any type of big sedge fly will work...Mikulak is also great. I always add floatant to help keep the fly on the surface. 1 or 2 fish will probably require a fly change regardless of your dry fly preference. I always make sure I have plenty of dry flies tied up and have a 2nd dry rod rigged when the fish are rising. I'm looking forward to getting up there on the 1st of July.

Not ice dub, just overwrapped the deer hair/thread body with a couple strands of mylar flash to clean it up. I'll probably do some with pearl and some with herl just for variety.
The foam one is overwrapped with poly yarn fibers - I like yellow on dries.

Thanks for the tips - see you up there!

 

[Dave Westburg]

All this talk about BC lakes gets a fellow ta thinkin. What’s the latest you’d go into this area? I’m thinking about camping at Lost Horse around the end of Sept or beginning of Oct.
I have access to a pop up bed camper on a 4 wheel truck. I also have a nice 23’ trailer. What might your thoughts be? Would it be better to use the trailer and camp closer to the main hyw and drive to the various lakes in my 4x4 for the day. Or forgo the creature comforts and use the pop up at Lost Horse? Thanks in advance!

The road to lost horse is tough. I don’t think you’d get a trailer in there. Set up camp somewhere else and 4 wheel in to the lake. Sept would be a good time to visit.

 

[Kado]

I'm psyched to hear how it went! I and a buddy are thinking of hitting the BC lakes next year.

 

[Northern]

I'm psyched to hear how it went! I and a buddy are thinking of hitting the BC lakes next year.

I found MLFC to be a perfectly pleasant way to spend a week; I'd be interested in revisiting the area in the fall, for sure! (The mozzies were pretty vicious first week of July)

The area is gorgeous, and the folks running the lodge are awesome and fun. Most of the lakes we fished had numerous middling-sized, beautiful, acrobatic, dry-fly munching trout. Larger fish were pretty infrequent that week, as reported around the dinner table, but definitely some around. I stopped hauling my depth finder into lakes after the first 3 days, because the fish were pretty much on every shoal, shallow, and visible dropoff, and easily tempted with any small wet fly with orange or red on a type 5. Also on Tom Thumbs or Mikulaks, even though there were only a few real sedges around. I think I used the same royal humpy to catch dozens of fish over the last couple days! Here it is tucked in a jaw:

Sadly, they ignored my gomphus flies
I'll admit that since they were taking dries, I joyfully left my indicator rig on the side of the cabin, so I guess it's possible bigger fish were on chiros? (Don't care, hate bobber fishing!)
We did fish one small lake that was stuffed full of larger, jumpy specimens - again, on big dries thrown to rings. Such pretty fish. I only had a couple hours there, would definitely revisit that one!


All in all, it was a really nice week!

 

[Dave Westburg]

I'm psyched to hear how it went! I and a buddy are thinking of hitting the BC lakes next year.

I'm thinking we ought to try to schedule a PNW Fly Fishing trip to Meadow lakes lodge next year. Quite a few of us make the trip.

 

[Billy]

Oh man do I want to go back!

 

[Zak]

I've never been to BC and would love to go. Hope they let me in...

 

[troutpocket]

@Northern that first pic really catches the vibe up there. Can’t wait to go back! How many lakes did you visit?

 

[Northern]

@Northern that first pic really catches the vibe up there. Can’t wait to go back! How many lakes did you visit?

Six, I think?

 

[Kado]

Seven hour drive? Half day of fishing....maybe three more days....then drive back. That would be a good mental reset.

 

[Ron McNeal]

I'm thinking we ought to try to schedule a PNW Fly Fishing trip to Meadow lakes lodge next year. Quite a few of us make the trip.

Yep!!

 

[stevesflyfishing]

Just returned yesterday from Meadow Lakes Lodge. Fished 5 lakes. Lots of beautiful Kamloops trout that I just turned into several pounds of smoked trout dip/spread. Weather was all over the map.......from 80 degrees and sunny to hail and cold. Typical even for this time of the year. Did not run into any decent hatches. Mosquito's were there but not near as bad a previous trips. Hayden and his niece did a very nice job running the camp.

 

[Kado]

What's a guestimate as to drive time from the Seattle area? I'm hoping if we can do this, an early start and still get some afternoon fishing in.

 

[Northern]

What's a guestimate as to drive time from the Seattle area? I'm hoping if we can do this, an early start and still get some afternoon fishing in.

6-7 hours, and depending on border crossing time

Edit to add: that's what we did. Dinner is served at 6, and folks usually go fish afterwards for a few hours

 

[Billy]

What's a guestimate as to drive time from the Seattle area? I'm hoping if we can do this, an early start and still get some afternoon fishing in.

I'm sure you can as there are options right by the lodge or within a short hike

 

[stevesflyfishing]

What's a guestimate as to drive time from the Seattle area? I'm hoping if we can do this, an early start and still get some afternoon fishing in.

We took around 7 1/2 hours including early lunch at A&W (my one frosty mug root beer a year) in Merritt and BCLiquor stop in Kamloops. Still able to fish lake next to lodge for a couple of hours before dinner.

 

[Aaron Meredith]

What's a guestimate as to drive time from the Seattle area? I'm hoping if we can do this, an early start and still get some afternoon fishing in

Since timing depends where you are coming from and weekday traffic I would target being at the Sumas crossing around 830am.* You will have plenty of time to eat lunch on the way, get gas/ice/flies in Little Fort, and still roll into camp at the 300pm check in time without feeling rushed. Plan on fishing one of the close lakes for a few hours before dinner.

*assuming you’re doing a half day…if you’re shooting for a 10am arrival stay in Kamloops or it will be a very early morning.

 

[Aaron Meredith]

Made our annual trip in Early July. Weather was warm and dry (2x rain storms of 5 minutes each for the whole trip). Mosquitos less than usual, but still thick on a few of the hikes with swamp/bog areas. Full moon, so day time fishing was a little below average. Halfback, Tom Thumb, Booby were the best producers in the 4 lakes fished. 3lb 10oz (22") was the biggest fish landed and lost another in the 3.5lb-4.5lb range. Several fish in the 2lb-3lb range. Kept 7 rainbows and released 56...plenty of action for 5.5 days.