2010.05.21 "Old Faithful" provides yet another Friday fish dinner
by Ron W
(Kamloops)
Caught on a Sinking Line with a Chromie
I had an opportunity to go fishing with Dave O (Mr Big Fish) on Friday and decided that I needed a fish meal. I picked the only lake where I always catch dinner worthy fish. I won't name it, but will say that this colourful lake is noted for football shaped brookies at the south end and monster rainbows to the north.
Mr Big Fish informed me that fishing for the big rainbows had cooled off but I wasn't concerned since I was planning on brook trout for dinner. We arrived at the south boat launch around 11 am which coincided with the start of a minor feeding period. Chironomids were coming off in swarms with the odd one bomber sized. A few mayflies were also starting to emerge.
I got off to a bad start when one of the rubber straps on my diving fins snapped and I was forced to jury rig a strap to hold the fin loosely in place. This just confirmed that I wouldn't be kicking my float boat very far and would be confined to the south bay for the day.
True to form, some brook trout were rising just off the launch. After trying a leech for about 15 minutes with no takers I decided to switch to a big flashy chrome chironomid with red rib and butt. I like to fish the chromie on a sinking line and vary the depth and speed of the retrieve. I also don't anchor so I was drifting with the swirling wind.
Despite my violation of several chironomid fishing paradigms I quickly hooked a nice fat two pound brookie. I had a few more strikes and released some small ones before catching a fat three pounder.
Both fish were stuffed with chironomids, some surprisingly big, so I stuck with the chromie I had on for the rest of the day. It stood up well since I hooked around 20 fish . Most were small and I released them in hopes of catching some bigger ones. I did manage to catch a few more fat ones and packed it in around 4 pm.
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