Happy Anniversary to Don & Judy (38 years(!) yesterday), and to me & Wendy (27 years today!)

What a difference a day makes!

I got up Wednesday morning and tied up some (I thought) killer flies to imitate the large chironomid pupae I pumped from a fish's throat on Tuesday. Having heard promising stories about their efficacy, I also tied some Orange Boobies to try out on the dour fish. With visions of 5 pounders dancing in my head, I headed out onto Tunkwa shortly afterwards, only to see long faces on Don, Little Dick and Big Ken, who were all anchored close to the site of Big Ken's good fishing on Tuesday. No one had landed a fish, and some hadn't even a touch. Sigh...

I figured I might as well give it a go, so I anchored nearby. Since there was more wind which made it a lot choppier than the previous day, I decided to fish naked with one line and try the booby on my Deep 7 line. Despite moving several times to places where I saw jumping fish, I could not get a sniff. As far as I could tell, the rest of the gang were equally unsuccessful. There were few fish jumping and I saw only the odd chironomid.

Misery loves company, so I moved over and anchored near Big Ken. Happily, I was soon into a fish on a sz 10 maroon-ribbed anti-static bag chironomid pupa. Unhappily, it came unbuttoned just before it arrived at the net. As I was playing the fish, Normfish came over and anchored beside me. As we were chatting I hooked and landed a fish on a sz 10 copper-beaded Kraft Dinner. A throat pump came up empty. Norm and I continued to chat for the next hour or two, and several fly changes resulted in about four more fish hooked, but none landed - each one took on the rod I wasn't holding, jumped and shook the hook.

Norm had two lines out - one fly and one with garden hackle. He had no takes on the fly and he only got two fish on bait, so the fish were definitely dour. Big Ken, having had such a good (relatively speaking) day on Tuesday, barely had a sniff today. Sigh... So much for the start of bomber season! On the bright side, Norm reports that the Tunkwa fish taste good right now, a nice change from their usual muddiness at this time of year.

Back to Island Lake

Yesterday, leery of baking in the sun to no avail on Tunkwa again, Don and I made another foray to Island (Big OK) Lake, and we were not disappointed. We got a bit of late start - sitting around chatting in the morning seems to eat a lot of time! - so we didn't get to the lake until about 11 a.m. where we found three fellows on pontoon boats on the water. As we were getting the boat launched we spotted one of those anglers with a fish on - a good sign!

We cruised across the shoal to our favourite starting spot and we noted that the mayflies weren't hatching like they were last time, nor was there as much surface activity as there was last week. Undeterred, we anchored at the drop off and got busy. I had a take almost right away on a sedge pupa, I spotted a good fish swimming right under the boat, and Don landed a small fish on a chironomid shortly afterwards, but we had no action for a while after that so we pulled anchors and headed to our next favourite spot.

It was a good move, as Don (or was it me? - I can't recall!) was into a good fish almost immediately, and we had fairly steady action for a couple of hours. The good old Ice Cream Cone and a brown-ribbed ASB pupa did the trick; there was little need to use anything else. We had at least three double-headers, and I got one fish that took me well into the backing. It turned out the backing was tangled, too! How the heck does that happen? Luckily, the fish turned before the tangle locked up tight and I was able to land the fish. As you can imagine, I spent the next 15 minutes peeling line off the reel and making sure the backing ran true. It would be a shame to hook Walter and break him off because of tangled backing!

 

After hooking a few fish under the indicator, I decided to dig out my 3 wt and fish naked. what fun! The takes are like getting a mild electric shock - a little tingling in the fingertips then a jolt. I'm really loving that 3 wt rod, too. I think I have arthritis or something in the lower joint of my thumbs and I sometimes get quite a bit of pain when I cast with my thumb on the grip of the flyrod, but the 3 wt. is so light that it puts no strain on my casting-hand thumb. I can cast it for hours with no pain. I am also impressed with the fish-fighting ability of that rod. At first I was worried that, when using it to catch larger fish, I would have to play them for too long and thus increase the chance of them not surviving. It turns out that my fears were unfounded. Despite it being only a 3 wt which casts a 3 wt floating line beautifully, I have easily fought and landed rainbows over 6 lbs. It is a fast rod and it seems to have a lot of reserve power in the butt section which allows me to really "put the screws" to the fish, which is great because I like to land and release fish quickly so they live to fight another day. BTW the rod is a four piece Redington CPX 9' 3 wt with a Rio Gold line.

Island Lake double-header

Things slowed down considerably after a couple of hours, like someone flicking a switch, so we decided to go for a cruise and see if we could spot some fish in shallow water. We headed into a shallow bay and we saw some nice fish slowly cruising, but we couldn't entice them, so we went back out to fish deeper water. We were using a colour sounder (Humminbird 345c), loaned to us by Al Patton (Tunkwa lake Resort) which allowed us to easily mark fish, so we cruised the drop until we spotted some fish on the sounder, then anchored. It paid off and we both hooked a couple more fish. In fact, we must have stopped right on top of one because Don had a take while he was lowering his anchor!

Since it was Don and Judy's anniversary (38 years! Happy Anniversary!), we packed up early and headed for home. On our way out we chatted with one of the other anglers and he had landed a few fish, too, also on a "black chironomid". He reported that the surface action during the evenings had been good (he and his pals were camped there) and, indeed, they were headed out to toss Tom Thumbs for the evening. When we got back to Tunkwa we found we had made the right move, as most of our pals enjoyed limited success on Tunkwa.
 
 
Time to get packing for salmon fishing with the spey rod!
 
 
Cheers! KW

Baking in the heat

Wendy and I spent an enjoyable couple of days fishing and baking in the sun with Spratley - yesterday at Logan Lake for the afternoon, and today at Tunkwa, also for the afternoon. Poor old Spratley certainly has the wrong colour hair for hot, sunny days! However, Wendy created shade with PFDs and his pillow, and we poured lots of water on him and kept him supplied with fresh water throughout the day, so he did fine. He was never too hot that he couldn't leap up and try to bite the fish whenever one of us was landing one!

Logan Lake was almost empty yesterday- there were never more than three boats on the lake. Very few insects were hatching, and the fish were mostly suspended at about 15', even in much deeper water. I suspected they were feeding on Daphnia - a suspicion confirmed by a throat pump. We tried a small bloodworm dangled under an indicator at 15', a tactic that has worked well in the past when fish were feeding on red Daphnia mid-water, but they were having none of it this day. Slowly retrieving an olive micro-leech under an indicator, or stripping an olive seal leech or a Pumpkinhead on a Deep 7 line were the tickets to hooking fish.

When we got back to Tunkwa yesterday afternoon, we received a report that Big Ken had done pretty well on Tunkwa fishing bloodworms. He had landed several good fish, some in the 4 lb range. I tied up some bloodworms this morning and Wendy and I joined Big Ken, Little Dick, Gordie, Leroy et al down by Goose Island at about 11 a.m. Big Ken was doing pretty well - not like in the old "fish a cast" bomber hatch days, but the fish he hooked were good ones. We saw him land at least one 5+ lb fish, a couple of 4 lbers, and several in the 3 lb range, all on bloodworms or a green red-butt pupa. Little Dick was also doing pretty well, but as far as we could see he wasn't getting the big fish like Big Ken. I hooked a fish that looked to be at least 4 lbs on a bloodworm within a few minutes of arriving. Sadly, it came unbuttoned near the boat, but I assumed we at least had it figured out and more good fish would be had. Unfortunately, we just didn't have the chi today. We managed a few fish, including one decent one, but there was long waits in between hookups. As far as we could see, Big Ken and Little Dick were the only guys hooking fish with any regularity. Moving from time-to-time seemed to help. We did that, too, and typically we got a fish or two every time we moved. Of course, every time we moved fish started jumping where we were... C'est la vie!

There wasn't much of a hatch on Tunkwa today. From time-to-time we'd spot a bomber or two hatching, and small sedges fluttered by occasionally. I pumped a couple of fish. One of them had only mud remnants in its throat; the other fish had a bunch of small green bloodworms and couple of large (sz 8-10) bombers which would have been well matched by an anti-static bag pupa with a wide dark reddish-brown rib. Hopefully, those are the start of the long awaited bomber hatch on Tunkwa!

Cheers! KW

There and back again

The past few days saw Don and I hit Island (Big OK) Lake for a day, then Wendy and I off to Kelowna for a wedding, then back to Tunkwa, fishing en route both ways. On our way home on Wednesday we went to Kentucky Lake, one of our haunts when our kids were small. On Thursday we had the pleasure of seeing Hannah Mallinson married to Joseph Oorobeek (I love weddings!), then on our way back to Tunkwa on Friday we stopped at Island Lake (the one near the Coquihalla Connector) for a couple of hours where we ran into a bunch of people we know very well (or who know people we know well). Over the past couple of days we fished Leighton Lake for the first time in a long time.

Island (Big OK) Lake
Don and I decided to try taking a trailered boat to Island Lake, hoping we could get it down a road we'd never tried, but which we had heard was very rough. Normally we take small, cartop boats to Island Lake because the access we use has no good spot to launch from a trailer. Were we ever glad we tried the new (to us) road! It was not nearly as rough as expected - getting the trailer down it was easy - and launching was a piece of cake. It was very nice to have a Don's jonboat with seats, good anchors and a motor! Happily, the fishing was good, too. We found a short-lived mayfly hatch in the middle of the lake on the shoal, and I hooked (and lost) a nice fish on a Moose Mane Humpy. When we moved to the drop off at the edge of the shoal we hooked several fish on caddis and chironomid pupae, and when we moved to the shoal near our old launch point we had regular hookups on chironomids. Small Ice Cream Cones were the ticket. Don used the same fly all day (except for when one broke off) and, despite several experimental fly changes, I always ended up going back to the Ice Cream Cone. We even had a double-header. All-in-all it was a good day, and Wendy and Judy returned from their trip to Langley and were waiting for us with all sorts of stories when we got back to Tunkwa.

Home to Kelowna via Kentucky Lake
When Barry and Alison were young kids, and we were still travelling around with our camper during the summer, Kentucky Lake was usually the first stop when we left for our first trip. It has a very nice Provincial campground, and we were often lucky enough to get a site right on the water. The kids had lots of fun playing at the shoreline, Wendy could relax and watch them easily, and of course I could go fishing right from our campsite. There is a nice trail around the lake which meant for great family walks, and there are a couple of kids-only fishing ponds nearby. The lake itself has gorgeous white shorelines and shoals with clear water which looks blue as it deepens - it looks like a tropical paradise! To top it off, there were some good size fish in there, too. I often spotted them, and sometimes hooked them, as they cruised the shoreline and shoals.

We decided, for old time's sake, to stop at Kentucky lake on our way home for Hannah's wedding. It is still as beautiful as ever, but the larger fish were not visible. We saw and caught only small fish, but they were certainly plentiful and very willing to bite. They are also chrome silver with very pale backs - very pretty fish. Unfortunately, I left the camera in the car so I didn't get any photos of the fish. We saw fish on the shoals, and the sounder showed them at 30-35' and 60-65' down. After a couple of hours a thunderstorm arrived and the wind came up, so we decided to call it quits. I did, however, grab the camera and I took a few panorama photos before we left.

Hannah's and Joseph's Wedding
On Thursday, we attended the event for which we came home: the wedding of Hannah and Joseph. Hannah and her sister Emily are friends of our kids, all of them attended school together, both at my school, Springvalley Middle and at Rutland Senior.

In addition, Hannah and her mom, Vanda, were members of my fencing club for many years.

My son, Barry, works for Hannah's dad Martin. Hannah recently graduated from Memorial University in Newfoundland, Joseph graduated from USC in California, and Emily has attended a couple of universities during the past couple of years, so we'd seen little of the kids - who are no longer kids! - during the past four years.

What a pleasure it was to see those poised young adults getting married! Hannah positively beamed during the whole evening and bride, groom, bridesmaids and groomsmen all looked great.

Joseph's roommate and good friend Cesar, who is from El Salvador, was unable to attend due to US immigration law that would have forbidden him to re-enter the US had he left to attend the wedding. In his stead he sent a life-size photo of himself which was mounted on cardboard and walked down the aisle to join the rest of the groomsmen! It was great!

The wedding was held at Guisachan House, a heritage home converted to a restaurant, which has a beautiful garden.

The kids looked grand as they strolled the pathways of the garden.

There were snails all over the place! You had to be very careful when walking or you'd crunch them.

Several of the kids' former teachers (and coach) attended, so we got together with Hannah and Joseph for a photo after the ceremony.

Hannah and Joseph are both brilliant students and voracious readers, so the wedding cake reflected their shared love of learning: it looked like a stack of books, and it was delicious, too.

After the meal, speeches were given and both fathers gave particularly good ones. Joseph's dad's was very touching and heartfelt, as was his mom's part, and Martin, is his typical fashion, spoke with no notes. His words were off the cuff, funny, touching and just plain good. It's amazing how he can pull words out of thin air and have us laughing one moment and holding back tears the next. He even recited a verse from Bob Dylan's "Forever Young". Great stuff. Afterwards we all went outside for the traditional tossing of the bouquet - Hannah hurled it clear past the waiting girls (she must still be strong from fencing! ;-)), and Joseph landed the garter short, but "Cesar" managed to grab it.

The formal part of the evening ended with the traditional dances. Ten years have passed, but it seems like just the other day that Hannah was a shy little girl in my fencing club, and there she was sharing a first dance with her husband as a new bride, radiating happiness. How time flies...

Island Lake (Coquihalla Connector)
Over the past few years we'd heard stories of big, difficult fish in Island Lake and, despite good intentions, we'd never fished it even though it is only about an hour from home. So, we decided we'd pop in and give it a go. When we arrived and I was manoeuvring to launch our boat, Wendy said "There's Jacquie!". Sure enough, Jacquie and Perry, our friends from Kelowna and the parent's of our daughter's best friend and roommate, had arrived just before us and were setting up camp. After chatting a bit we launched the boat, and when I went back to the Explorer to grab a camera, my cousin Glenn and his wife Janice, rolled in. Another chat-fest ensued.

Fishing was about as slow as it could be. There was not a sign of a fish, either directly in the shallows or through jumps and rises, nor on the sounder. There were hundreds of Dytiscid (Predaceous Diving) beetle larvae, Water Boatmen, Backswimmers, scuds and damselfly nymphs visible in the water. Whenever I've encountered that in a lake, the lake has been devoid of fish, and Island appeared to be no exception. Perhaps there were the rumoured monsters present, but we couldn't find them. We quickly lost interest and decided to pack it in and head back to Tunkwa where, even thought they're very tough to hook these days, there are certainly fish! When we hit the beach a fellow named Terry came over for a chat, and it turned out he works, though Telus, with Will - a fishing friend from the coast who we see at Leighton Lake every summer. So, out of the five parties at the small campground, we had some sort of connection to three of them. Small world!

Leighton Lake
Finally, we fished Leighton Lake for the first time in a long time over the past two days. The weather is baking hot and the fishing was tough, but perseverance with a clear line and an olive seal leech brought a fair number to hand. They are small this year; I landed none over about 2.5 lbs and most were a lot smaller. I saw another angler hook a couple that appeared to be ~3-4 lbs. Yesterday the fish were very active - lots jumping and rising - and there were many fish in shallow water where I caught most of them, even though the surface temperature was 70F. There was a sparse chironomid hatch but the fish were not really interested in chironomids. The fish were not nearly as active today, and there were not as many showing themselves in the shallow water. Perhaps it's finally too warm - 73F on the surface. We hooked a few on bloodworms, chironomid pupa, a Pumpkinhead and my olive seal leech. Brian and Brad reported that they caught quite a few on the Pumpkinhead and bloodworms, but the fish were small. Where are the bruisers from the past?

Anyhow, that's it for the past few days. I need to update this thing more often! These multi-day summaries take way too long on a slow connection, and WYSINWYG! On a side note, Kye brought his trailer to the resort yesterday and got set up. Now, where to fish today?

Cheers! KW

Caddis quest

Hoping that the general feeling that hatches are behind schedule due to the cool, wet spring I decided to head for a small higher-elevation lake to try to catch some sedge action yesterday. Fran said that it was supposed to "blow 30 to 50", but I figured "What the heck" and took a chance. I wasn't disappointed!

I took Spratley and dragged the boat 30 km on pavement then 10 km up a rough, rocky road to find the lake almost empty - there were two float-tubers and one cartop boat on the lake, and no one was on the shoal I intended to fish. To my delight I noticed some small sedges fluttering near shore and spotted the odd rise here and there. As you can imagine, I set up and launched the boat with a bit of urgency! Spratley did his best to help by attempting to get under the wheels of the Explorer and trailer and by jumping in and out of the boat once it was in the water. He gets excited about fishing, too!

The water was very clear - nice to see - and I was immediately into fish on a Chromie and on a sedge pupa. There were not many insects hatching during the middle part of the day and a couple of throat pumps revealed only sparse Daphnia and a small green/red bloodworm.

Despite the paucity of hatching bugs, a large (sz 6) sedge pupa on a clear intermediate line, stripped up the drop-off, elicited quite a few takes. Most of the fish were small, but from time-to-time the fish felt heavy and peeled line from the reel. Sadly (as usual...), the heavy ones came unbuttoned. All the fish I saw were chrome silver.

At about 4 pm or so a variety of sedges started hatching - from small ones about sz 16 to the odd large Traveller, and the fish started rising. I switched to a sz 12 No-hackle Elk Hair Caddis and the fish responded with vigour. Lots of them nailed it with aggressive takes. I switched to a sz 6 Mikulak Sedge when I noticed a Traveller Sedge hatching, and the action got even better. Sometimes I got a take every cast, although I only hooked some of them. As with the pupa, for some reason the heavy ones came unbuttoned after peeling some line from the reel. Oh well, as they say "The tug is the drug" and the ferocious take is the best part. That said, it's nice to land the big ones once in awhile!

At about 5 pm a storm threatened to move in. There was a bit of lightning and lots of thunder on the horizon and the sky darkened in the East. The sun was still mostly shining in the West. Of course I didn't go in other than to grab a rain jacket, 'cuz the sedges were hatching and I was catching all sorts on dries! Happily, other than a sprinkle of rain and a bit of wind, the storm passed me by.

At about 7 pm the hatch was over and the fish stopped rising. Both Spratley and I (mostly Spratley) were hungry, so I decided to pack up, crawl out on the rock-infested road, and head for home. On the way out I met a truck/camper/trailer combo coming in. It's a one-lane road, but luckily I only had to back up about 50 meters until I found a bit of a wide spot where we could pass. I sure wouldn't want to back up too far on that road, especially with a trailer!

Ah, the things we do for sedges...

Cheers! KW

A busy week!

It's been a busy week here at Tunkwa, thus no post for awhile. Sharpy and Lisa were here, Wendy and Judy treated Don and me to a night at Roche lake Resort, Wendy's brother Bob and his family come for a visit, and Steve, a colleague from Kelowna and his friend from Princeton came to stay in a cabin and fish for the weekend. Sadly, the fish weren't busy biting! I guess that's why it's called fishing, not catching.

Sharpy and I went down to the knoll on Tunkwa last Sunday afternoon, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fishing. We got all sorts of takes on small black & red Ice Cream Cones, and while the fish were mostly small, they all fought very well. A throat pump revealed that the fish were eating small, dark-reddish brown - almost black - chironomid pupae, so we guessed right! Hoping to get Sharpy's GF Lisa into some fish on chironomids, we went back on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, the wind was fierce and the fish were not nearly as cooperative as they were the previous night. I managed to hook a few, but Lisa and Sharpy went fishless.

On Tuesday, Don and I headed for Roche to begin the mini-trip to which the girls treated us.
It was an early anniversary gift (our anniversaries are on subsequent days: July 29 & 30) and Wendy & Judy were going to meet us at the resort at 1:00 pm, collect Spratley from us, and check into our chalet. It rained something fierce for most of the day and the fishing was tough. I managed an OK fish on a mayfly nymph in Monster Bay, but the takes were few and far between. Fran came out to fish with us and also had a tough time getting into fish. Wendy and Judy arrived at 1:30 pm, collected Spratley from Gerry who had kindly taken him from me (Spratley was soaked, cold and glad to be out of the boat!), and Don and I went back out to flog the water. The afternoon was just as slow as the morning.

The rain abated and the weather cleared for the evening, so after a tasty supper of Indian food from Kamloops, Don, and I headed out to meet Fran and fish the evening Travelling Sedge hatch. We only saw one sedge pop, which I captured and photographed to show Fran the colour of its abdomen, but there were some fish on the shoal and I managed to raise a few to a Mikulak Sedge. Most came unbuttoned, but I landed 3 or 4, which was fun. After the evening fish we had a very nice visit with Fran and Gerry, and we were treated to a great slide show of local wildflowers and pics from Slovenia.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny, and we ate a huge, delicious breakfast at the Roche Lake Resort restaurant. I didn't eat for the rest of the day after polishing off the three egg omelet with hash browns and toast! The girls checked out, looked at some units for sale, and Don and I went back out on Roche to try to get some fish. Different day - same story. There was nothing hatching and the fish were not cooperative. We saw fish on the shoals but they were very skittish. I managed to briefly hook one on Carl's Flats on a BMW, then hooked and landed a couple near the end of the day in Monster Bay - one on a BMW and one on a Pumpkinhead. I pumped one fish and it had only one pale scud. Tough fishing all-in-all.

When we got back and checked email we discovered that Bob, Diane, Nick, Steven, and Nick's pal Jordan were coming for a visit on their way to summer camp at Naramata. Wendy and I fished Logan Lake for a few hours on Thursday (it wasn't too bad) before their arrival, and the Therriault gang came by and found us there on Thursday afternoon. We departed for Tunkwa and got them checked in and their tents set up, then dug out the guitars and had a sing-along around the campfire at Don & Judy's place. It turned out that Diane, Steven and Jordan are all guitar players! Luckily Steven had his guitar and I had two of mine. Great fun, and no dogs howled as a result of our attempts at playing and singing... ;-)

Yesterday, Judy and Wendy took Diane thrifting in Kamloops, and they came back with a full RAV (as usual). I took the boys out on Tunkwa to try our luck. Nick and Jordan were first up in my boat, and Bob and Steven rowed around in our old 12 footer while the rest of us fished. Tunkwa was its usual self and gave up no fish to our flies, so we put the boat back on the trailer and headed for Logan Lake which is fishing better. This time it was Steven's turn to fish, and he had his best day yet, hooking a few fish and landing three of them, all on his own. Despite being allowed to keep fish from Logan Lake, Steven opted to release all of them to fight another day. Don had a banner day, too, landing many fish including one that topped 5 lbs. Nick decided he didn't want another turn in the boat, so he, Jordan and Bob headed for camp with Steven and I following soon after. The boys had a Texas Hold 'Em lesson while Wendy and I visited with Steve and his pal Ed.

Today saw Wendy and Judy leave for Langley in the morning while Bob & crew decamped and packed up the van for the trip to Naramata. After the Therriaults said their goodbyes and hit the road, I went out on Tunkwa for the afternoon to meet up with Steve and Ed. Fishing was slow as usual. Don got a few from Logan Lake, but it was also slower than yesterday. A few others from the gang fished Tunkwa and also had little success- are you detecting a trend? After a quick supper and a shower I took Spratley for a walk out on the point. I made a few casts with my new 3 wt CPX (sweet!), but only managed to rise one fish which was not hooked.

Well, that's the week in a nutshell.

Cheers! KW

Another day, another road trip

So far, so good. The fridge seems to be working well with the ICM from the hot water tank, while the hot water tank quits from time-to-time with the fridge's ICM. We're going to buy a Dinosaur ICM and install it on the fridge. Apparently the Dinosaur units are much better than the Norcold part.

Yesterday Wendy and Judy went to town to get water, shop, make phone calls and go out for lunch. They also helped our new neighbour, Murray, build his shed.

As you can imagine, Don and I went fishing! Dick and Gordie were keen to try Roche Lake, but they'd never been there before so Don and I led them over and gave them some ideas of where to try their luck. It was hot as blazes yesterday and, while we spotted lots of fish on the shoals, we had a heck of a time getting any of them to bite. Most didn't even bother following our flies, and they were very skittish - not surprising considering the clear water, bright sun and relatively calm wind in the early part of the day. The surface temperature was about 69-70F, too, so the water on the shoals was warm. Anchored in ~14' of water, Gordie and Dick managed to entice one or two smallish fish to a chironomid (brown-ribbed anti-static bag) under an indicator.

Don and I went over to the resort and found Fran (Rainbow) and Gerry, had a quick visit, then Fran grabbed her boat and came fishing with us. None of us were able to get a fish on the shoals, although Don hooked one, on a sz 18 Chromie, that jumped and broke him off. We decided to head for deeper water in search of less wary fish which, it turned our, we should have done a lot sooner. It's tough to leave those bruisers you can see, though!

We anchored in ~14 of water and cast out over water ~25' to fish the drop off. Don dangled a chironomid and I chucked a sz 6 sedge pupa on a clear intermediate. I quickly learned to either keep my reel away from me or put the rod in the holder while I counted the fly down. As I was counting, I rested the rod on my lap and a good fish hammered the pupa on its way down. Before I could react, the reel handle smacked me in the hip and the fish broke off. It jumped right afterwards just to show us it was a nice one. Dang! Fran had gone to search for fish at a favourite spot, so I radioed her and she quickly came back to anchor beside us.

I cut back to heavier tippet (8#), tied on another copy of the same fly, and within a couple of minutes hooked and landed a dandy (see photo). Don hooked one on a chironomid and the fish proceeded to swim around like it didn't know it was hooked before it snapped Don's tippet. We never saw it but we suspect it must have been a big fish. Fran hooked on on a sparkle leech, and I had another take on the sedge pupa while it was sinking. Having learned my lesson a couple of takes ago, the reel was unobstructed and I landed the fish. While playing it I thought I had a monster, but it ended up being only 2-3 lbs. Those fish were pulling very hard!

A fast as the action started, it stopped. We flogged the water for another hour or so, tried another spot, then decided it was time to head back to camp. Too bad it's a 90 minute drive between Tunkwa and Roche! Upon arrival back at camp we were pleased to find Dale (Sharpy) and his girlfriend just arrived and chatting with Richard (Bushman). Being late and having mosquitoes trying to relieve all of us of a few litres of blood, we decided against a campfire last night. We'll have to slather ourselves with DEET tonight, I think, 'cuz we definitely need a campfire!

Cheers! KW

Head for the hills!

Well, it looks like the fridge's ignition control module may be faulty. It's now on the hot water heater which has gone into "lockout" mode at least twice since I did the swap. Before the swap the hot water tank was working fine. The fridge is working well with the hot water heater's ICM - it has only had the check light come on once; before the swap it came on whenever the fridge ran for a few hours.

On to a more interesting topic - fishing! Don and I headed for the hills to fish a small lake that should have a good sedge hatch about now. Richard (Bushman) gave us directions for a shortcut which was great; we got there about twice as fast as usual. It was sunny and hot with a slight breeze - very nice after such a cool, wet spring! We had the lake to ourselves, and we found some fish on the shoal that were eating sedges, but sadly the feeding binge was short - less than an hour. I managed to get some on a no hackle Elk Hair Caddis, and a couple more on a pupa. I also hooked some on a chironomid. There were quite a few small tan caddis hatching but, as I said, the fish only came up for them for a short time. They basically disappeared after 3:30 PM, which wasn't surprising considering that the sun was high and wind had calmed down. The water there is so clear that I'm sure the fish go into hiding when the conditions are like that. We flogged the water until about 5 pm or so, then we decided to go try Dairy Lake for the evening.

Dairy was quiet, and there was only one other party on the lake. They said it had been slow. For the first couple of hours there was little activity and not much hatching. The water was murky. Don got a few takes on various flies (he almost lost a rod on one!), and I got a nice fish in a Kamloops Pupa. At about 7 pm quite a few small sedges and the odd large Traveller Sedge were hatching, and fish started rising. I got some takes on a Mikulak sedge and hooked and lost a couple of nice ones on a Kamloops Pupa. The rise only last for about 1/2 hour, and after it waned we decided to pack up and take off so we would have some daylight left to help us find our way back the way we came in. On the way out I noticed the Explorer's computer said "Check air ride system". I hope it's not serious, i.e. expensive!

Either the sedge hatch is just starting (I hope), or it's ending. Either way, it wasn't going great guns today.

Wendy and Judy hung out at Tunkwa today, made a puzzle and took Spratley for a long walk over to the Provincial Campground to use the phone. They said it was quite hot here today, and the mosquitoes were (are!) vicious at dusk - a downside to warmer weather...

Cheers! KW

A tale of two ICMs...

The saga continues...

The wind howled yesterday - thank goodness for awning straps and tie-downs! - so we spent the day working on the fridge.'Not much point in trying to flyfish in a gale.

Having exhausted most of the troubleshooting we can do on our own, we decided to take the ignition control module, burner and electrode to Kamloops and have them checked by an RV technician. The tech at the first RV place suggested we replace the burner, but unfortunately (or fortunately, as you will see later) the currently available replacement burner requires a new fitting on the gas line, and we lack the tools to do that job (need a flaring tool). He offered to do it for us if we brought in the gas line, but of course that is a 2 hour round trip. He was not able to test the ICM for us, so we went to South Thompson RV where John and his RV tech were extremely helpful. They cleaned and checked the burner for us and pronounced it sound. They tested the ICM and said that it passed the test, but their tester would not necessarily pick up intermittent failures. John was of the opinion that we might have oil in the lines blocking the flow of gas from time-to-time. John also suggested I go talk to his Dad, Terry, at Citation RV next door. Terry was also very helpful, and he didn't think that oil was our problem, but it was likely that the ICM was failing intermittently - apparently not common, but also not unheard of. While talking with him I got the idea that I could perhaps swap the ICM from the hot water heater with the ICM on the fridge.

When we got home last night I re-installed the ignition control module, burner and electrode on the fridge and, of course, the fridge started right up. The flame is much stronger now that the burner is clean and free of debris. We went to bed with our fingers and toes crossed, hoping that we would wake up to see no Check light. Sadly, it was not to be - the Check light was on in the morning. The fridge started up when we turned it off and on again, though - very weird. I decided to try swapping the hot water heater and fridge ICMs to see what would happen. Both appliances seem to be working with each other's ICMs. If the fridge works fine with the hot water heater ICM then we'll know that it needs a new ICM. If not then we'll know the problem must be elsewhere. We'll see what happens...

On the bright side, the weather is much improved - it's sunny and wind, while brisk, is not strong enough to cause whitecaps on Tunkwa, so we can go fishing!

Cheers! KW

BTW I have nothing but good things to say about both South Thompson RV and Citation RV. They were very helpful, and the lads at South Thompson RV would not accept any payment for the cleaning and inspection of my burner and testing of the ICM. Great service! They'll definitely get my future business.

Happy July 4 to our American friends!

On the bright side, the fishing was not bad at Leighton yesterday. There were lots of Limeys and a few small sedges hatching. Lots of small, but enthusiastic fish nailed a sz 14 Deep Sparkle Pupa. Lots of fun on a 3 wt!

Sadly, our fridge is still on the fritz. :-( As I said in my last post, I watched it for quite awhile in the sun and it ran fine. When I came back from fishing later that evening it had gone into lockout mode, which means it had shut down and was unable to restart for some reason. Sigh...

I called the local RV repair guy, who was out, but his wife told me that he had lately dealt with a few units that had oil in their propane lines. Apparently, when it is cold out, the oil condenses and can block the flow of propane. That makes a bit of sense since the fridge seems to run for a long time when it is warm out, but it shuts down when it's cold outside - even when it should be on. Yesterday, when it was warm and sunny in the morning, it ran like a champ. Today is miserable and cold and it doesn't want to run. A web search revealed that oil in propane lines is not uncommon and is often the cause of poor appliance performance.

I'm going to take the ignition control module and have it tested since it is $150 - $230 to replace. I'm also going to disconnect the tanks tomorrow and see if any oil drips from the lines.

The weather was nasty here today! Thunder, lightning, hail and torrential rain. Sedges were hatching on Leighton, though, and FishOnOff did pretty well on Tunkwa. Happily, the forecast is for sun and warmth starting tomorrow afternoon...

I'll be happy when the fridge is working again, the weather settles down, and the fish start chowing down!

Cheers! KW

Slow fishing and a wonky fridge

Well, summer is finally here, according to the calendar anyhow. The weather and fishing would have us believe otherwise...

I arrived at our trailer yesterday morning to start our summer vacation, only to find that Wendy has had trouble with the fridge for the past three days. We're not sure what's wrong - it lights but won't stay lit. Yesterday I checked all the connections at the power board and DSI board, and they seem to be good. This morning I found a good Norcold refrigerator troubleshooting website(we have internet at the trailer this summer!) and I thought I had the problem diagnosed. When we turned on the fridge, the ignitor would light the burner, the flame would burn for a few seconds, then the ignitor control would shut it off. I was pretty sure that the flame sensor electrode was not in the path of the flame so it wasn't able to properly measure the presence of the flame. Thinking there was no flame the DSI would shut off the gas and ignition. I bent the electrode a bit so that it is definitely enveloped by flame, and when we tried the fridge again it came on instantly and stayed on. We thought we had solved the problem. Sadly, when we came in from fishing a few minutes ago we discovered that the fridge was off again and the trouble light was lit. Dang! Back to more troubleshooting...

Fishing is slow at Tunkwa right now. We suspect the unsettled weather is a big factor. Hatches and fish activity are intermittent and sparse. Some guys are getting a few fish on mayfly nymphs in the afternoon, but not many fish are being caught. Apparently Logan Lake is very slow right now, too. I haven't heard any recent reports from Leighton. With luck we'll get some good, consistent weather soon, the fishing will pick up, and it'll feel like it really is summer!

That's it for my first blog post from Tunkwa Heights!

Cheers! KW