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[wooly bugger]

Planning on Roche Lake this weekend (first timer) and was recommended to go by a friend.  I've heard this is a "world-renowned" lake for fishing but for such an infamous lake, I can't seem to find any fishing reports.  Has anyone been up lately?  What was your experience?

I've heard Tunkwa / Leighton Lake should be lighting up this weekend but not fond of tent camping there, not a sliver of shade to hide under...

[DanL]

Roche is indeed a very famous destination but is known more for its fly fishing and the fly guys aren’t as active here on FWR. Also the posters here seem to be more based in the lower mainland there isn’t nearly as much discussion about interior stillwaters as there is about LML lakes and rivers. Up to date discussion on Kamloops area lakes is more likely to be found on forums dedicated to fly fishing.

Additionally FWR has is a dedicated section for fishing reports which new posters don’t have access to until they reach a certain post count or become subscribers. You can check out the new posters sticky for the guidelines.

As for Roche I haven’t been up recently but it does suffer from the summer doldrums and apparently a nasty algae bloom which was supposedly OK a few weeks ago but may have taken hold by now with the warmer weather. Roche fishes best in the spring but you can be guaranteed that people are still on Roche constantly and fish are caught every single day, though you may have to work harder for them now.

[wooly bugger]

Hey DanL thx for the insight on both the forum and lake, much appreciated.

Just got back the other day from Roche and it was pretty much what u said.  Definitely it was slooooooooow....certainly it couldn't compare to the last time I was up in the Interior (late June).  I had to work hard to find the fish and entice a bite, working the various structures around the entire lakeshore. In 3 days I caught 3 fish, and one of those days didn't have any bites at all.

Surprisingly the lake was doing well in the midsummer, not a tonne of algae, I'd say the visibility was about 4 feet underwater? Despite the summer doldrums there were still die hards fishing there.  We were (UN)pleasantly surprised by the cool weather, a freak thunderstorm rolled through and shut down the lake. Over the entire weekend it was probably no hotter than 22 C.

[hillmonkey]

@wooly bugger i sent you a PM

[RalphH]

Algae blooms are usually restricted to the top few feet of water. In some lakes fishing can be great if you fish just below that by using an intermediate line. I guy I fished with used to do well on Roche in August. However most lakes below 4000 (1200 meters) will be in the doldrums. Fish early and late and concentrate efforts on drop offs. Chironomids in deep water can be effective.