After talking with KJ after my trip to Campbell Lake he suggested that Campbell might be worth a try again. How could I say no?
We arrived just before 9am. There were a few day fishers loading into the water. As I approached the launch I noticed that the 2 guys getting geared up were long time friends, Bill R and Gibb D. Our boys played sports together a number of years ago and we occasionally run into each other. Gibb had his 3 sons with him.
The sky was clear and there was a light east breeze. KJ hit the water first and I think he started with a wet line and leech. I had my sites on the spot that was successful earlier in the week. There were 3 boats in the area... drats! As I approached there was one guy hammering fish already. There was some room about 100 ft past him so I nestled into my spot. KJ anchored at the other end of the string of boats.
2 of the boats were seriously fishing and they were both catching fish but one was doing real well. They were hooked up with dry line and strike indicators. They said small black chironomids. I had an answer for that!
I was into a fish on my first cast but lost it. I caught a few fish while watching those two hombres over the next hour when they decided to go in for early lunch. Both KJ and I converged in closer to the weed bed.
Again, I didn't have to move for the rest of the day... or almost. #14 black/chironomids with a white bead head was deadly under the strike indicator. We were only fishing 3'-6'of water, casting over growing sub-surface weed beds.
The fish came in waves, particular to their size. The standard size I determined was 14" to 15". We would be into those for 45 min, it would die down for awhile then the tiddlers would move in. Then the bigger fish would show up. The rotation continued all through the day.
The wind changed direction a few times but I was positioned well to play it to my left or my right side.
The indicator line was definitely the hot commodity this day. I did better on the naked line (no strike indicator) later in the afternoon. The fish that were pumped showed a variety of chironomids and micro-leeches. The most effective fly fishing patterns proved to be chromies, black/silver & black/gold(rib), with white heads.
We could hardly pull ourselves off the lake but we finally came in around 7:45pm. Between the 2 of us we must have had 50-60 fish to the boat. We asked around and it sounded like many others had a good day while others not so good. A few guys from Revelstoke did well at the east end of the lake.
