Got skunked but was a good day with my Dad and my son

Caught the one and only fish on our trip

CANT FIX STUPID...

CANT FIX STUPID

Granddaughters can catch nice...

Granddaughters can catch nice fish too

Another Day out on Moose Lake...

Another Day out on Moose Lake with their Papa. Great camping and fishing location for the younger upcoming fishing people. Much better talent than gaming on a computer.

Moose at Moose Lake...ironic?

Moose at Moose Lake...ironic?

Air Time

Air Time

Moose Lake June 14/2014

We had a great start to our fishing season with a trip to the Shuswap area for a long weekend at White Lake. Afterwards the season took a bit of a downward turn. I had a good Pike day or two but Trout had remained difficult. We broke the slump with a really fun trip to Ol’ Faithful, Moose Lake. The fishing here never disappoints but the spring fishing is absolutely amazing. We made a moderately early departure at 7 am. It is a long drive, 7 isn't really a great start but after a long week it was a welcome departure time. We arrived at Moose, 9 am, to an overcast day, a quickly warming 9*C water temp at the boat launch and a fairly stiff breeze pushing WSW across the lake. I took these conditions as a good start with the potential to turn either way. We unloaded, prepped and put in 15 minutes of motor work. A friendly gentleman staying in the camp site next to the boat launch loaned us a socket, for which I was very grateful and after a few minutes of observing the water and shore, we were off with very little idea of how to start. There were scuds in large numbers close to shore, a mayfly here and there, and not a whole bunch of sign of any major bug activity as of yet. An ever hopeful bunch, we dragged leaches, tossed dragon nymphs, hung scuds and even at one point touched an Elk Hair Caddis to the surface (a slight variation of my own that I like to call Grayling Candy, but that is for another post). Some caught fish, albeit sporadically, for maybe 5 to the boat by 11am. Most fish were throat sampled, none gave a positive, solid result. The wind was becoming quite strong and starting to swing the tinny around a bit, even with both anchors. The three of us made a collective decision to move a little tighter to shore, the wind didn't seem to be getting quite low enough to cause a problem there. The depth was quite shallow but it was fishable and has produced in the past. We used the MinnKota to reposition, threw anchor and started discussing a game plan. Nicola, my wife, was ready for a snack, maybe a nap, she's a fishing trooper but at 7 months pregnant the day gets long, so she was in for a break. Mike and I went different paths. He went naked and was weighting up and dragging whatever he could across the bottom. I elected for an indicator, swivel and a gamut of unproductive patterns hung at varying depths, trying to use the wind ripple to drift and add some action to the fly. At the point of being stumped we got a sign of what we were all hoping for. Is that? Are you sure?? Is it only one group? Look around us, here they come, I swear there were not that many Chronies on the water 20 minutes ago. I had already thrown most colors of Chironomids that I had in my box, at wits end I swung a loop knot through the eye of a #12 light olive chrony with a gold bead head and gold rib. As I tied in the swivel and set my depth I was noticing the odd rise, the fish were moving, happy and starting to feed. The indicator splashed down 40ft from the boat, the swivel started sinking and before it had time to get half way down the indicator was walking sideways across the lake! Set, hook up, fish on!!! It was pretty hard to contain my excitement. I was having a really hard time believing that Ol’ Faithful would give me a tough spring day but it really was starting to look like we weren’t going to figure this one out. Time had progressed well beyond 1pm and we only had 6 to the boat at this point, not a great showing, but this fella, this guy, this little fishy made 7 and hopefully he was a sign of better things to come. When fishing I like to keep in my mind that one fish on any fly is luck, two with the same fly is coincidence, three fish however is a pattern, everyone switch and fish it. With this in mind I threw the set up again and got a splashy landing at <30ft, what a disappointment, not happy………..wait though, don’t recast, wait, just wait, don’t spook the fish, fish it, fiiiiish it, Wham!! Coincidence! Two to the boat in a couple minutes. Mike by this time had stopped casting and was paying attention, Nicola had broken her nap, cracked an eye and was watching, all knew what the possibility of the next little fella meant, and we were not disappointed. Within 10 minutes everyone had switched up, light green, gold bead, gold rib, swivel, indicator, set 1-2ft off the bottom, in essence, text book chironomid fishing. 5 hours and a quick lunch break later we had over 30 fish boated, three stocker pan fryers kept for supper and a big surprise to all of us, a good count of released, wild, very spotted rainbow trout! I am not certain that they were wild, they certainly didn’t resemble a Pennask, which has been the solely stocked strain for many years. Spotty, dark green backed and red striped, average size quite a bit smaller than the stocked non-reproductive silver sides. Ol’ Faithful produces once again. It had been a very successful, confidence inspiring afternoon/evening! Stories and laughs all night over pan fried trout, grilled veggies and a nice scotch or two. The whole reason we do this is for the memories of days such as this. Already not a single catch stands out in my mind but the memory of the day remains strong and shining, as any good trip should. The word on the lake was that the FFSBC had some biologists out at the lake that week and there was talk of observing spawning wild Rainbows in the stream earlier in the season, which there hasn’t been in significant numbers for many years. There was also talk of possibly changing the management strategy to a more trophy growth related strategy. Personally, I believe this lake is a long way from these sort of changes and the local public will really need to get on board to protect this lake in a manner conducive with the transition to a managed wild fishery. I see far too many folks taking fish in too great of numbers far too often. The north, always home and my place to be, seems to be quite a long way behind the rest of the province, maybe the world, in effective catch and release practices. The regulations limit the amount of fish one person can keep to protect the stocks for future use and the good of the ecosystem. I keep a fish or two for a meal, by no means do I frown upon that but there is no reason to come to a lake, retrieve twice the legal limit and leave. What about the next person? What about your kids? If we don’t want our children to enjoy the resource then I guess we can continue down this path. Trophy fish and wild stocks only grow when left to grow, you cannot grow a population if you deplete it beyond sustainability every year. This even applies to people that stay within the legal regulations, taking the limit but taking it every day or two from the same lake. This does not promote sustainability and although it may be your legal right, maybe you need to think about the sustainability of this precious resource, especially in the case of wild fisheries. They are so precious and fragile and nearly lost to all of us due to our past, possibly current, behaviour. Please buy your licenses, obey the rules and enjoy your day on the water………..for many years to come.