Shane and I decided to give Alta Lake one more try before a series of Interior BC trips between later on this month and July. The drive out was much better than previous trip's. From Steveston to Whistler, it took exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes. This short heat wave has brought everyone out from the bushes. I spotted one large black bear just before Daisy Lake on the way there and another smaller young bear on the way back.
Unfortunately it was windy as the weatherman had predicted. When I arrived at the launch, I saw Tex tubing with the wind. Another familiar face emerged as well, it was Floon. Shane was late and thanks to two other gentlemen at the launch, I was able to get the boat out before he arrived. I headed over to Floon for a quick chat. He informed me that Tex had landed a nice cutthroat trout while he had connected with a few small rainbow trout. He was determined to stick around "Floon Dock" where some very nice cutthroat trout have been caught in the past. I informed him that I was going back to my "little shallow patch" where it has been productive this season.
The previous few trips we have been flyfshing most of the time. After doing some trolling during the last trip, I decided to switch the tune for awhile and brought along two spinning rods this time. I rigged one rod up with a weighted float and fly, while another one with a 1/8 spoon. It only took a couple of minutes of trolling before a small trout grabbed the spoon. Unfortunately, the wind picked up steadily and it became too gusty for trolling. I then joined Shane and anchored at a drop-off to see if we could intercept shallow cruisers.
I had a few tugs as soon as I settled down at the spot. An average-size rainbow trout was brought in. Meanwhile, Shane was still setting up his rods. First he forgot toothpicks for his indicators, so he casted his line over for a quick-release indicator instead. Once he started casting, he noticed that he had missed threading the line through one of the guides on his rod. He proceeded to snip off his fly and re-thread. When he was about to make another cast, he again noticed that another guide was missed. This is what happens when you decide to quit fishing in the winter.
Beside a few more small ones, the "little shallow patch" did not really produce for us. We decided to head over to the floating docks, where we found the same result. We then decided that the wind was dying down, which it wasn't, so we went trolling again. We were blown around until we finally gave up and anchored again. By this point I was very frustrated and ready to throw a rod in the water. Shane came over and said he was starting to get PO'ed with the wind. I said, me too.
After realizing that the wind was not going away, I made my way back to the "little shallow patch" and found another drop-off where I thought might hold some fish. This time the guess was spot on. The indicator on the 4wt swam around below the surface not long after I sent it out. I set the hook and it was obvious that this was a cutthroat trout from the rod bend. I turned the video camera on and kept it running while the fight went on. Eventually the fish surfaced, but only briefly as the quick-release indicator did not release itself. I was now stretching one arm with the rod as high as possible and extending the other with the net to scoop the fish. Three tries later I was holding a spotty cutthroat trout around 18 inches long. That was pretty much the highlight of the day. Shane came over and joined me. Beside a few more misses, we did not touch anything at the spot.
The last hour we moved our effort to Floon's Dock, where I managed to land a very colourful and good sized rainbow trout. A couple of big cutthroat trout rolled beside me when Shane headed to the launch. I tried a little while longer with no touches.
This photo pretty much sums up Shane's day.
Enough of these minbows, time for some buffed up triploids next weekend.
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Topic: Alta Lake, May 18th 2008 (Read 1828 times)