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[Rodney]

Our first Interior BC lake trip was not disappointing as usual. Nick, Chris and I headed up to Merritt on Wednesday. For me it was simply a quick overnight trip, while they stayed one extra day. I was quite excited to try out these new Stryker Rods that have just been built up. The setup for the trip was a 9' 4wt Stryker with an Islander LX3.2 and a 9' 5wt Stryker with an Islander LX 3.4.



Our first destination was Mamit Lake, just northeast of Merrit. It's a fairly large lake, so we decided that my little pram should be towed by Nick's boat to where we wanted to go. The day started out with a few mishaps. As Nick threw over the tow rope to me, the metal clip at the end hit one of the new rods preciously and instantly snap one section in half.



As we made our way to the spot, I noticed that the electric motor was doing the funky dance in my boat. The wooden board had fallen off who knows where and the electric motor was dangling and held on by the wires to the battery. We quickly stopped and I hopped back into my pram to rescue the motor.

Once we got organized, the fishing instantly fired up. Fish of all sizes up to 3lb were hopping all around us.





When these rainbow trout got lazier, the odd northern pikeminnow managed to sneak in.



Fishing with two rods can be hazardous at times. Double headers were not uncommon.



The weather was pleasant throughout the day, except the freak hail storm that came without any warning at one point.



We ended the day with about 50 to 60 fish landed. They were between 14 and 19 inches long.

The second day we fished a smaller, remote lake for some Fraser Valley rainbow trout that were stocked in it last year. Without a winter kill, these fish have grown to around 3 to 4lb heavy. Their length is between 16 and 20 inches, but the girth is much larger than the ones that we targeted on previous day. These larger fish don't jump much, but their robust runs did some damages after numerous hook-ups.



The day started out slowly but fishing picked up once hatches came on strongly.



I ended up hooking a dozen or so fish. Nick was into over 20. Chris did not connect with as many fish, because he went for a snooze on the hill when the fishing was just picking up. A good start for this season, more to come hopefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99xh2yKtGQ

[BwiBwi]

Nice trip!!!

Well your boat is trying to tell you something.... Stop spending 700~800 dollars on those rods instead spend some on upgrading your boat.    

[Fish Assassin]

Hope your rod is under warranty.

[swampdonkey]

cool pics

[DAWGMAN]

nice fish. was wondering what was the colour of the day for the chronimides and size

[SNapz]

Looks like fun! I'm heading up that way this coming weekend as well as the one after.

What brand of float is that in the picture?

[chris gadsden]

Looks like fun! I'm heading up that way this coming weekend as well as the one after.

What brand of float is that in the picture?

Toronto Maple Leaf Indicator.

[mastercaster]

 What? You didn't get hit by lightning?  Were you ever thinking...what else could go wrong??  What an adventure!  BTW, that's got to be one of the worst leader tangles I've seen.  LOL  Thankfully, the fishing, and no doubt the company, was good.  Great pics by the way! What kind of hooks are you using?  In all my years fly fishing I've never had a hook snapped....just bent open if the wire is too fine.

Haven't fished Mammit since they've put 3N's in...it's nice to hear there's some sizable fish in there now.

[coryandtrevor]

Good work ! those are the days I dream of......


Anyway, sort of an offbeat question : Did you have cell phone reception at/near Mammit ?  I only ask as i'm sort of on call and need to be within 4 hours of Vancouver at all times.

Cheers

[chris gadsden]

Good work ! those are the days I dream of......


Anyway, sort of an offbeat question : Did you have cell phone reception at/near Mammit ?  I only ask as i'm sort of on call and need to be within 4 hours of Vancouver at all times.

Cheers

My Rodgers did not work there but I believe Telus on Nick's phone did.

[Rodney]

My Roger also didn't work like the knock-off brand Rodger.

Snapz, those are quick-release indicators. I don't know what brand they are, but they are available at all tacklestores.

DAWGMAN, green and brown with gold rib both worked on and off at Mammit Lake.

There is now a 15 minute video on this trip for subscribers.

[Novabonker]

Glad to see that the fishing is good around Merritt. My hump is broken from overwork,haven't had a day to flip a fly this year yet, but I've managed to get a 4 day run up Peterhope way to get blown around and fight loons. I hope that darn bear stays away this year, or I'll have to start up the chainsaw again. I might even try some fishing......

[chris gadsden]

Day 1

As I load up the Leaf Mobile and head down the road to meet the Master at our agreed meeting time of 7am I think it has been a long time since I had wetted a line. Usually when we are finished steelhead fishing on the Vedder we have not much of a break as we start chasing chinooks on the Fraser River. For the last few years they opened on May 1. Of course this year it has been catch and release with hopefully an opening starting on June 16th.

I have no interest in catch and release on these fellows as they are travelling such distances to their spawning grounds and I worry about their survival after being returned to the water. Of course I am all for conservation of these early timed fish but I wish if they are in trouble like FOC says they are all users leave them alone to reach their natal streams.


Anyway as I said I had not fished for a few weeks and was looking forward to the annual trip with Nick and for the second year in a row Rodney was comming for two days of the three day trip.

I get to The Master's house a little early for a change which makes him happy as he is always very excited and anxious to get going and to get fishing.

With my gear quickly placed in his new Ford truck we are bound for Hope, our first stop, where we are to meet up with Rodney at the Home Restaurant. This beast of a truck dwarfs the old and tired Leaf Mobile who will be happy to rest for a few days in Nick's driveway but the thought of the gas bill scares me a bit.

Nick chatters about the fishing trip on the way to Hope telling me what lake is hot and what is not. He has that fishing pipeline that keeps him abreast of the current "Hot Spots". He says we are going to start our trip at Mamit Lake as his brother who lives close to this lake says it was just starting to get good. Nick asks me if I am looking forward to the trip, what a question, who wouldn't be when you are fishing with one of the best all round anglers in the Province. We do not call him The Master for nothing. I am the beak of this trips trio having not that much experience as the others at this fly fishing game but that is okay, no pressure to catch these rainbows.

We arrive at Hope in about 30 minutes and slip into a booth, Nick orders a rather large breakfast, I settle for good old oatmeal and toast. As we wait for our food we see a ambulance screaming by, "most likely an accident on the Coq." Nick says. I wonder to myself how mishaps happen on such a good divided highway.

Our breakfast arrives and at the same time Rodney calls on my cell phone saying he is about 30 minutes away which works out well. He drives into the lot with his little boat sitting on his car's roof rack, arriving just as we are paying the breakfast bill.

Nick quickly informs Rodney where we are going and adds "just follow us". We are now on highway 5, about 2 hours from Mamit Lake, the Coq. highway sure has opened up the area for the lake fishers, making travel quicker and easier to reach their favorite lakes.

We are only a few miles into the journey when we see where the ambulance was going, a transport truck has lost its load of lumber, going to fast, fell asleep at the wheel or his load shifted, who knows.

The rest of the trip is uneventful and in no time we have reached our starting lake. It amazing how fast the time goes when you are listening to fish tales after fishing tales.

As we arrive at the small boat launch a couple of chaps are putting a Porta - boat together, strange looking boats but I am sure they are practical to use if you do not have a trailer and they are certainly easy to put on top of a car. They move it out of the way so Nick and Rodney can get their boats in the water and load in the gear.

As we are going to be down the lake a bit we decide to tow Rodney, we are in a slightly bigger boat with 40 horses pushing her. Rodney has an electric motor which he says does not have a very good battery. Nick tosses the tow rope to Rodney before he climbs into the 16 foot Princecraft, "easier to tow if you are out of your boat" The Master says. He throws a perfect strike with the rope, with the clip landing right on top of one of Rodney's new rods, ding, sad, it never got to make one cast and now is  a 4 piece rod.

I hope this was not to be the sign of the trip ahead that I will continue later today.

[fintail1]

porta boats are real nice and stable, i'm borrowing one from a friend and give it a thumbs up

[chris gadsden]

Nick picks out our first area to fish, behind an island a little out of the wind, Rodney hops back into his boat and we anchor a 100 yards or so apart.

Nick is very particular in how he positions the boat of course, with an anchor at the front and another in the stern to prevent the boat from moving about so we get the best presentation possible of the chironomid.

In no time I am into a fish, actually I have landed two before Nick has one, a rarity. One jumps so high it jumps into the boat while I am playing it. These are the best jumpers I have seen in my limited times I have tried lake fishing. Nick tells me this is because of a small parasite a copopod on the fish that they are trying to shed. He adds these rainbows are all natural production and no fish are stocked in this particular lake.

I look over Rodney's way and he is having some luck as well as well as missing more than he lands. Is it because he is using two rods. He also has landed some of the biggest pike minnows I have ever seen.

The fishing is not as good as it should be Nick says so we pull anchor and move to another spot but we do not stay there long as we donot even get a bite so we are on the move again. I am getting my exercise pulling up a 20 pound flat anchor off the muddy or marl bottom.

This move pays off as we hit the jackpot and we are getting a bite or landing a fish on every cast. Fish are jumping everywhere too, lots of chironmid casings showing on the surface too.

I say to Nick " we better go back to our original spot where Rodney is fishing and get him down here so he can take part in the action too".

He agrees and we quickly pull anchor and in a couple of minutes later we are excitably telling Rodney " we have found them".
He pulls his two anchors and once again hops into Nick's boat. (This is where Nick throws the tow rope and breaks Rodney's rod not on my previous post, I just saw it on my video I was watching)

We get halfway back down to the area where we have found the fish and Nick sees Rodney's electric motor sitting sideways on the boat's transom, just hanging on. O no, first a broken rod and what now if the motor goes swimming with the fishes. Luckily it does not and Rodney clambers back into his boat and saves it from a watery grave.

The block of wood that the motor was screwed onto had fallen off hence the near miss of making it an expensive trip for Rodney.

Nick and I motor around looking for the piece of wood but the choppy water made it hard to spot and besides we want to get back to the fishy spot we had left behind now 15 minutes ago.

Finally both boats get anchored in again with fish up to 18 inches jumping all around us, knowing they are there adds to the excitement and the pleasure. Rodney films some of the action and tips from the Master that are now up for viewing on this thread for subscribers.

Fishing is fairly consistence with brown and green chironmids being the ticket in landing fish up to 18 inches with a few large coarse fish thrown in for good measure. As we anchored in fairly close to the shore in about 12 feet of water the wind is really not a factor. What was however was some dark clouds moving into the area. Shortly after these same clouds are pelting us with small hail stones, I have no rain gear but thankfully the storm is short lived so I donot become too wet.

The fishing seems to tail off some with the low pressure system that is moving through but we are still rewarded with the odd fish, enough to keep one interested until our stomachs tell us it is supper time. Time to head back to Merritt to find some accommodation and food to give us back  some energy lost to battling 50 to 60 beautiful rainbows to the net in one of British Columbia's numerous lakes.

Give it a try, the fish are waiting for you.