Part Four
Sunday August 13th (cont.)We arrived at Juniper Beach, hoping to cook up a warm meal as the sun sets on the horizon. The heat was still in the air, but the cool breeze from the west was very welcoming. As I started pulling out the stove and pots from the car, I realized, "Matches...!", they were left back at home.
Good thing the friendly caretakers at the campground were well equipped and we were saved.
Not long after our meal, Carlo and Shane arrived. We started heading to the runs where we planned to fish for the evening. Shane was hopping from one rock to the next, before we knew it he was way ahead of us. It was almost as if he knew where the fish were going to be.
Carlo and I fished a bit downstream, while Nina stood by with the video camera, ready to catch the action on the tape. With the odd small hookups, no large fish were found. Shane later reported landing two 16 inchers on the dry. Near the end of the outing, I managed to connect with a good sized fish briefly just several feet from shore. There were not a whole lot of fish at the end of the day, but still a very enjoyable one.
Here are two more photos taken on that day.
Monday August 14thIt was a late start on our last day.
After a lengthy breakfast at White Spot, and checking out from the hotel, we arrived back at last evening's spot at around 11:30am. I first gave the dry fly a go, only to have two rises that nudged the fly gently. We then moved to a deeper, slower pool, where Nina could spin with my spoons and spinners again. This time, I sat back with the video camera and waited. The first fish grabbed the blue striped spoon just several feet from the rock where Nina was standing. It was unexpected as the water was only a couple of feet deep. It was a big fish, which leaped straight out in front of her, so close that she could almost grab it, but proceeded to fall off the hook as it dove back into the drink.
The next fish grabbed the spoon as it was retrieved from upstream. This one fought quite differently. It turned out to be a fat northern pikeminnow. Check out the maximal fin extension of this fish when the photo was taken, very pretty in my opinion. It was rather dark, the interior fish look quite different to the ones that we catch in the tidal Fraser River, which are usually silver.
We then moved further down to the end of the pool, where it looked very promising for a spoon or spinner. It only took two or three casts before Nina hooked another one, which peeled the line off the reel extremely fast. I thought it maybe a jack chinook for a second. The entire fighting scene was caught on film, a chrome looking trout around 16 inches was released at the end. Nina proceeded to hook and lose a couple more fish, they seemed to fall off quite easily if the hook set wasn't hard enough. The Thompson rainbow trout lived up to their fame, by darting all over the pool, very powerful for fish that are only 16 to 20 inches long. The spinning outfit performed fantastic. Nina then wanted to switch to a spinner. I tied on a 1/8oz spinner with a green blade that we have been using for northern pikeminnow. It only took one cast for her to get into another fish!
After manning the camera for awhile and watching her getting into half a dozen fish, I was eager to get back on the fly rod. I wanted to move to a new run, where it would be more suitable for flyfishing. Nina insisted that I should cast into the pool where she had been getting the fish. I thought, what the heck, let's give that a go. The first cast brought the fly to the middle of the hook, within seconds the strike indicator was gone! I set the hook, only to find the line peeling off my hand really fast. I thought, "What a nice trout this is!" The run lasted for about ten seconds as the fish made its way to the main channel, then it stopped.
I began reeling in the line, making my way to Nina who had the camera rolling. The fish popped its head up right in front of us, it was a gigantic northern pikeminnow.
While trying to reach the hook, the fish popped off and went back to its merry way. A video of this will be shown later.
Carlo and Shane showed up soon after the northern pikeminnow, they made their way up as we continued to fish the pool. Nina casted the spinner again, this time into the more turbulent run where I thought spinners would never do well. I was wrong. It only took about three winds on the spinning reel before the spool started screaming! Jack spring, no hope I thought! Wrong again, it was another nice rainbow trout.
We finished the day at 3:30pm, exhausted by the heat and walk, but fairly satisfied with the result. Well, Nina was satisfied, I only landed two trout during the whole trip.
Our Thompson River outfit was pretty simple. We were equipped with a couple of Islander IR2 reels and 9'6" Stryker Rainshadow fly rods. The rods were either 4 or 5 weight, light enough to cast all day, with enough strength to handle all the trout in the river. The fly line was connected with a 9 feet leader, I used 6lb test Maxima Ultragreen line, followed by either a dry or wet fly. For the dry fly, Daryl at Reaction Fly and Tackle recommended California Blonde, while Nina and I had good success with Kaufman stoneflies for nymphing. The strike indicator was a great asset for me, just about all my fish hooked were with a strike indicator. I had the depth adjusted between 3 to 5 feet, depending on the time of the day.
For a change of scenary and pace, some of you maybe interested in giving the Thompson rainbow trout fishery a try in the future.
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Topic: The annual hunt of Thompson rainbows, August 13th - 15th (Read 3796 times)