British Columbia Fishing Blog

This video blog was supposed to be published a couple of weeks ago but we ran into some technical problems recently. The computer that has been working so hard to render all the video that you watch finally gave up. The silver lining of this is now we have a better machine that can do the tasks much faster and produce better quality flicks.

Anyway, this video blog features the second trip that we did to Kawkawa Lake. Unlike the second trip, we had a relatively sunny day so most of the fish were feeding on the bottom. We managed to tag a few but missed much more due to the soft bites.

A 12 minute video tutorial on this particular fishery is now available for subscribers.

There is always a good reason to be excited in the Lower Mainland at the beginning of March. Birds sing, flowers bloom and fish bite! With unseasonably warm weather, we loaded up the boat this week for a trip to Kawkawa Lake in Hope. Although the fish that we are after barely reach 12 inches in length, this is one annual trip that I always look forward to. Catching countless fish among friends after spending many months away from the boat is surely a great way to celebrate the arrival of spring.

After a rather sleepless night, we left Vancouver with the loaded car at 8:00am. With clear sky above us, we were confident that it was going to be a fun day of fishing while basking under the sunshine. Could we be more wrong than that! Misty weather greeted us when we passed through Chilliwack. By the time we arrived in Hope, rain was coming down in buckets! We made it this far, it only made sense for these fair weather fishermen to brave it and catch some fish.The first two hours were rather uneventful. Beside catching the odd landlocked coho salmon, the bite was not on at all. As time passed, the boat slowly turned into a bathtub. Nina had enough and decided that it was time for her to head back into the car.

The look after being pounded by rain in a bathtub for a few hours.

After dropping her off at the boat launch, I proceeded to head back out and join Nick, Marco and few optimistic others. Funny enough, the fishing turned from night to day as soon as I anchored. Perhaps it was my tiny sensitive float, perhaps it was my well rested arms, I was hooking fish one after another. Within minutes, I had kept my daily quota of kokanee as well as releasing a couple of coho salmon and cutthroat trout.Nick explained that these kokanee, which are mostly three year old, typically measure 10 inches in length around this time of the year. Because the lake lacked ice this year, the feeding period is lengthened, therefore the fish that we encountered were at least 1 inch longer than average.

Landlocked coho salmon.

Spotty cutthroat trout.

Head shot.

I phoned Nina to report my instant success and lure her out of the car. It was time to cruise back to the launch and pick her up. We returned to the spot in no time and luckily the surface feeding frenzy did not fade away. In fact, it was becoming more intense. For the next several hours, we hooked, lost, kept, released many fish until the groomy weather was once again too much to put up with. We packed up at 4:00pm, only to see sunshine approaching in the horizon as we drove out of Hope!A 8 minute video diary of this particular trip is now available for subscribers.

We have been back from Denmark for almost a month now. Although we are really glad to be enjoying the mild weather, we still have not touched a fish yet this year. A couple of days ago, seeing that we were going to have a break from the rain, we decided to spend a day searching for some winter bull trout.

Unlike interior bull trout, these coastal populations are amphidromous, meaning that they spend their life travelling between the ocean and rivers. In the winter months, these fish tend to congregate in rivers where most of them will end up spawning.

It was just another typical day of winter trout and char fishing. There was a lot of walking with little success. Watch the video to see if our persistence was paid off at the end!

Taking advantage of the much milder weather that we have in Southern BC than Denmark, we decided to give steelheading on the Chilliwack River a go last week. As usual, we fished with our good friends Chris and Lew who are seasoned anglers. With over 30 years of steelhead angling under their belts, it is worth listening to whatever advices that they offer. The fishing was unfortunately slower than what we had anticipated so Chris and I had a conversation on what to look for when fishing for steelhead on the Chilliwack River, as well as how the fishing has been this season and what the steelhead broodstock capture program is all about.

Since catching that fine sea trout over a week ago on the Danish coast, I have not been able to get out and try my luck again. Snow has been coming down hard for a few days and with temperature dipping down to -10C, this fair-weather fisherman finds it more enjoyable to stay indoor! To avoid cabin fever, we decided to leave the fishing rods at home and headed to one of the nature parks just outside of Copenhagen. Dyrehaven is a rather large forested park that has three species of deer grazing inside it. With the forest floor blanketed with snow, this was a good photo and video opportunity for us. Enjoy the video below and we wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season!