I joined some buddies on the shores of Buntzen Lake on Saturday for a quasi-stag. We rented 3 canoes and dragged them through the mud to the shoreline. Although they were pretty wobbly canoes, we still managed to stay afloat!
The odd fish was rising as we let out our lines, but mostly in the middle of the lake? Weird, usually fish tend to be more active towards the shoreline, but I've never fished Buntzen before so what do I know?
We began trolling the eastern shoreline, and about 2 minutes in I got a good pull on my 5wt, but 2-3 seconds later the little fellow had shaken the hook free. Oh well, a promising start!
I let my olive micro-leech back out - this fly is my go-to pattern. I have a lot of confidence in it, especially when I'm fishing one with a gold bead head, like I was on Saturday. For the next hour or so, we trolled up and down a long swath of the eastern shoreline, but without even a touch between the 7 of us in 3 different canoes. I tied on a few different flies, but still no luck, so I suggested we head back near the launch where I'd had the initial bite.
Slowly we made our way back there, and sure enough, as we passed the area, another good pull! I was paddling at the time though, so no luck on the hookset, but getting a hit told me we were in the right area. Not long after that - zip! The line took off through my fingers and I set the hook into a little rainbow trout of about 8-9". I landed it without too much trouble, but a lot of fanfare as it was the first fish of the day.
Soon after, I told my other 2 buddies in the boat to switch to olive micro-leeches, and seconds after doing so my friend Darryl hooked a nice-sized trout. While he was bringing it in, my friend Chris in the stern of the boat declared he had a fish on as well! Although we were concerned at first that they had snagged lines, both reeled in different fish... Darryl landed a nice little 12" rainbow, and Chris pulled in a bigger (16") northern pike minnow.
The rest of the day was much steadier with slow but regular bites, and I landed 3 more trout ranging between 9 and 13". Darryl landed one more NPM as well, and one of the other boats got a fish too.
The thirst for a beer eventually caught up with us, so we packed it in and headed to shore to go to the pub. All in all, a great day on a beautiful lake!
Tex
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Topic: Buntzen Lake, May 14th 2011 (Read 1040 times)