July, 2013

Summertime, and the livin' is easy... July means the start of summer break, sedge hatches, and road trips. Since we are fortunate to have a truck and camper once again, Wendy and I did a couple of trips in July including:

• a trip to Roche Lake to see our pals Fran and Gerry (and do some fishing, of course!)
• an adjoining trip up to Sheridan and Bridge Lake to visit with my pal Peter and his family, and Kenzie and Kyt (sadly, it would be the last time we saw Peter)
• a trip to Big OK Lake

I also started my somewhat annual trip to Terrace with Hu and Jack to fish the mighty Skeena River for salmon and steelhead.

Tunkwa had the best July fishing we've seen for several years, too!

A good way to start the summer.

Another good way.

We had the whole place to ourselves. Sweet!

Gotta love good weather, and empty campground, a glass of wine by the fire and a wife who likes camping!

Wendy networking.

Have I mentioned that I love sedge hatches?

The good ol' Michulak Sedge does the trick again.

Fran in warm Roche Lake evening light.

Kenzie hoping Peter's motor will start.

Wendy, Kenzie and Kyt on our tour around Bridge Lake.

Bridge Lake sedge.

They sure are green. Too bad the trout weren't keying on them at Bridge.

Trying to go unnoticed.

Tunkwa double-header.

Tunkwa bombers.

'Nice to get some good chironomid action on Tunkwa in July!

Longhorn Beetle. Aptly named!

The might Skeena!

Fishing here and there

Fishing has been spotty since I got back from Terrace. Some days have been pretty good, while other days have been slow. On the bright side, we finally tried out a lake we'd driven by, but never fished, ever since we've been coming to Tunkwa. What a pleasant surprise! It has wild fish that fight well, and the best bomber chironomid hatch I've seen so far this year. Here are some pics from a couple of days of fishing the new (to us) lake:

A rare calm day on our "new" lake

There are some nice fish in there

There are some bombers, too!

Spratley in an old homestead we found during a shore break

Another nice fatty

It's usually like this, which is why we never stopped to fish it!

The fish still bite, though!

Chironomids have a tough life. Fish eat the pupa, and if birds don't get the adults, damselflies get 'em.

We've also fished some other local lakes lately. Wendy had her first ever trip up to Island (Big OK) Lake the other day when we went up with Brad & Shawna. Fishing was OK, but not as good as earlier this summer. Most of the fish were skinny and/or dark - quite a contrast to the nice fish we were catching in July. We also fished Morgan Lake; it was slow with mostly small, dark fish caught. We popped down to check out the Thompson at Savona a couple of days ago, and we saw a steady stream of sockeye swimming by. Not much chance for trout when there are so many sockeye around!

Happily, fishing picked up here at Tunkwa a few days ago and we got into some nice fish.

We're getting some nice fish from Tunkwa these days 

 Alison, Lucas, Mom and Jim came for a visit a couple of days ago, and the wind commenced to howling, so we haven't fished for a couple of days.
Alison, Lucas, Jimmy and I went for a 4x4 trip up to Greenstone Mountain yesterday - stay tuned for pix from the old forest fire lookout up there!

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