On Sunday, May 29th, I drove to Mile High Resort which is located about halfway between Merritt and Kamloops, BC. My friends Herb and Keith drove up from their homes in Milton and Seattle. We had cabin-1 booked for eleven nights giving us ten fishing days.
I almost fell down on the dock at Mile High, it was frosty. The resort is on Face Lake, not a lake known for big trout, we use this place as our home and travel to a series of lakes we've gotten to know over the last 18 or 19 years.
Our first day we headed to Morgan Lake - I'm not worried about hotspotting this lake, it's very well known and one of the first lakes in the region to ice off. Morgan, in my opinion, was a bit off this year. Most of the fish I caught appeared to have been handled/caught before. Five years ago I caught a number of trout 24" or bigger. None came close to that this year. There are two shoals on the lake, one of them is next to the best "launch" on the lake. I was able to catch trout on a callibaetis cripple during a good mayfly hatch; the hatch saved the day as I couldn't figure out the midge game.
Morgan Lake trout fooled by a callibaetis cripple.
The weather was mostly wet and at times very wet, often windy, sometimes windy and wet. Then there was the lightning, thunder, hail, snow and a few hours of sunshine. Unlike some forum members, I'm not stylish when fishing up in BC. I wear PVC coated bibs with a PVC coated rain jacket - yellow. Keith tells me I look like a giant egg yolk standing in my pram.
Egg yolk angler attire and a nice rainbow. Eighteen years ago we found our way to SL-1, a lake that some years is a chironomid fishers dream come true and some years, like this year, a chironomid fishers nightmare. There were very few midges hatching on any of the lakes, and decidedly not on SL-1. I resorted to three different techniques to catch eleven trout similar to the one above. For the most part, I fished a jig under a QR indicator - I jigged the line/bobber/fly. Movement helped considerably.
Rio Grande King (Tim) sent me a sample of some FTD dubbing he'd mixed up. The jig above was tied from a similar blend I put together after ordering from the Mad Scientist. Super the Kraken Mud Puppy is the predominent dubbing.
SL-1 is less than ten miles from the cabin. It takes 75 or 80 minutes to get to the lake. The road has countless (and sometimes bottomless) potholes, a section of flooded road and this year, because of the terrible forest fires, downed timber. Note to self: next year bring a Swede saw instead of a carpenter's saw.
We fished Six Mile Lake twice. Six Mile (another too well know lake) is lower in elevation than Morgan so it too goes ice free faster than most area stillwaters. In years past, the lake has frustrated us until it doesn't. This year was no exception. Some years, when the sky is cloudy and the clouds are spitting rain but the "W" is calm, the lakes mayflies start hatching in early afternoon. Swallows and Nighthawks appear magically and the big fish come up. We didn't get the great hatch on either day but the second of two we had a fair hatch. I love dry fly fishing, it's something I don't see often enough on Columbia Basin lakes.
The fourth lake we fished will remain nameless, it's well known, close to Kamloops and, some years, has some awesome trout including some big brookies. You couldn't prove it by me that there were big trout in the lake this year. There were a lot of anglers and far too many of them (or is that "us"?). I counted over 30 boats at midday. A local told me the bomber hatch was imminent. It didn't happen the only day we fished this lake.
Eleven nights in the cabin - we eat well. I brought up a flank steak and mixed up a marinade and let it marinate for half a day. Sake, it seems to me, is a good tenderizer and when mixed with lots of fresh chopped ginger root, garlic, sesame oil, soy, brown sugar, black and red pepper flakes, you have a damn good steak. Chicken stew, pork chops in mushroom sauce, grilled andouille sausages, BBQ beef, and a fish fry - we eat well.
Herb with a nice SL-1 trout. Herb builds nets, that's one of his beauties.
Keith with a decent SL-1 trout.
Glad I had the PVC coated bibs and jacket.
Lupine on the Waterville Plateau. I spotted four antelope on the Plateau while heading up to BC, did a doubletake to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.
More later, maybe.....
I almost fell down on the dock at Mile High, it was frosty. The resort is on Face Lake, not a lake known for big trout, we use this place as our home and travel to a series of lakes we've gotten to know over the last 18 or 19 years.
Our first day we headed to Morgan Lake - I'm not worried about hotspotting this lake, it's very well known and one of the first lakes in the region to ice off. Morgan, in my opinion, was a bit off this year. Most of the fish I caught appeared to have been handled/caught before. Five years ago I caught a number of trout 24" or bigger. None came close to that this year. There are two shoals on the lake, one of them is next to the best "launch" on the lake. I was able to catch trout on a callibaetis cripple during a good mayfly hatch; the hatch saved the day as I couldn't figure out the midge game.
Morgan Lake trout fooled by a callibaetis cripple.
The weather was mostly wet and at times very wet, often windy, sometimes windy and wet. Then there was the lightning, thunder, hail, snow and a few hours of sunshine. Unlike some forum members, I'm not stylish when fishing up in BC. I wear PVC coated bibs with a PVC coated rain jacket - yellow. Keith tells me I look like a giant egg yolk standing in my pram.
Egg yolk angler attire and a nice rainbow. Eighteen years ago we found our way to SL-1, a lake that some years is a chironomid fishers dream come true and some years, like this year, a chironomid fishers nightmare. There were very few midges hatching on any of the lakes, and decidedly not on SL-1. I resorted to three different techniques to catch eleven trout similar to the one above. For the most part, I fished a jig under a QR indicator - I jigged the line/bobber/fly. Movement helped considerably.
Rio Grande King (Tim) sent me a sample of some FTD dubbing he'd mixed up. The jig above was tied from a similar blend I put together after ordering from the Mad Scientist. Super the Kraken Mud Puppy is the predominent dubbing.
SL-1 is less than ten miles from the cabin. It takes 75 or 80 minutes to get to the lake. The road has countless (and sometimes bottomless) potholes, a section of flooded road and this year, because of the terrible forest fires, downed timber. Note to self: next year bring a Swede saw instead of a carpenter's saw.
We fished Six Mile Lake twice. Six Mile (another too well know lake) is lower in elevation than Morgan so it too goes ice free faster than most area stillwaters. In years past, the lake has frustrated us until it doesn't. This year was no exception. Some years, when the sky is cloudy and the clouds are spitting rain but the "W" is calm, the lakes mayflies start hatching in early afternoon. Swallows and Nighthawks appear magically and the big fish come up. We didn't get the great hatch on either day but the second of two we had a fair hatch. I love dry fly fishing, it's something I don't see often enough on Columbia Basin lakes.
The fourth lake we fished will remain nameless, it's well known, close to Kamloops and, some years, has some awesome trout including some big brookies. You couldn't prove it by me that there were big trout in the lake this year. There were a lot of anglers and far too many of them (or is that "us"?). I counted over 30 boats at midday. A local told me the bomber hatch was imminent. It didn't happen the only day we fished this lake.
Eleven nights in the cabin - we eat well. I brought up a flank steak and mixed up a marinade and let it marinate for half a day. Sake, it seems to me, is a good tenderizer and when mixed with lots of fresh chopped ginger root, garlic, sesame oil, soy, brown sugar, black and red pepper flakes, you have a damn good steak. Chicken stew, pork chops in mushroom sauce, grilled andouille sausages, BBQ beef, and a fish fry - we eat well.
Herb with a nice SL-1 trout. Herb builds nets, that's one of his beauties.
Keith with a decent SL-1 trout.
Glad I had the PVC coated bibs and jacket.
Lupine on the Waterville Plateau. I spotted four antelope on the Plateau while heading up to BC, did a doubletake to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.
More later, maybe.....
