Corbett Lake June 8 2010
by Mr BFSH
Mayfly Nymphs were Working Well
It has been a long time since I fished Corbett Lake, not since about 1990 when there was still public access at the north-west corner of the lake. Today, Corbett Lake is entirely within private lands and is operated as a quality private fishery by the Corbett Lake Country Inn and owner Peter McVey. Rainbow trout of legendary size are sprinkled throughout the lake along with a wide variety of strong rainbows ranging from 2 to 7 pounds. After a few conversations with Peter he invited me to come down an fish the lake. Since I expected to need a camera man in case we got into something big, I brought along my friend KJ to take pictures or be the subject of an awesome video. There were only a couple of boats on the water when I arrived but the patrons of the Inn were gearing up quickly and hitting the water. Most were headed to the north end shoals while a few stayed in the shoals at the south-east corner. When we hit the water, I went to the east side and found the edge of the shoal... I was impressed at how fast the water turned deep. As I drift/trolled along the edge of the shoal I noticed some fish moving on the flats, in about 4 ft of water. Not long after, they started to roll in the shallows, obviously feeding on something. I came prepared with some really small chironomids (#18) and a small assortment of mayfly nymphs, mostly dark gray, light green or olive green, all tied with hair thin copper wire or holo-green mylar rib. I called KJ over and we both took a spot on the shoal. I got my first fish, about 17 inches long on a #14 red-butt chromie. On my other line, I started casting mayfly nymphs and the fish were starting to take them. KJ took a little longer to get into fish but when he did, he was getting some steady action too. Matter of fact, all the fishermen (there were about 4 more) at the south end were doing quite well. This went on through the morning solunar feed period and slowed a bit until about 1pm when they got active again. I had moved to the edge of the shoal again and was hammering fish along the drop-off with the dark-gray mayfly nymph, usually on the dead drift. I also caught a few fish on the little chironomids under a strike indicator. Action was steady. As the afternoon wore on the north end fishermen started making their was back to the lodge, leaving a fair bit of room for KJ and I to meander down to give it a go... the reports coming back were of "lots of fish" and "no real big fish". Not much difference from whence we came. We had spotty luck at the north end with fish taking both chironomids and mayfly nymphs. As the time slipped past 7pm, the weather started to turn and we started slowly trolling back. Then a wind came up so we started to make haste back to the launch. I had my electric motor on top speed and was traveling with the wind and I still had a floating line out with the mayfly nymph. You can imagine my surprise when a fish actually saw my mayfly, traveling that fast... and took a chomp on it. I ended up landing it and it was less than 2 lbs. Weird to say the least. I stopped in at the Inn before I left in hopes that Peter would be there... sure enough he was but he was elbow deep in cooking dinner for his patrons... a service that will no longer be available after June 30... Peter is going to semi-retire at the respectable age of 71. The lodge is rustic log and quite quaint. Most of the guests were in for dinner and I wandered around looking at the memorabilia. But.,. what really caught my eye was the huge mounted rainbow behind the bar... it looked to be 20 lbs or more and I did not ask... I simply admired. Corbett Lake Lodge is particularly busy in the spring and fall but there is usually spots open during July and August if you want to try summer fishing. The fish are a little deeper but they do come up on the shoals in the mornings and evenings. It's a lovely place to be, no matter how good the fishing is and there is always a chance to hit a fish of a life-time. ps... I would like to thank Peter, Kim and the rest of the hard working staff for having us there and special thanks for the awesome onion soup which was quite welcome after being out in the rain for about 15 minutes. Corbett Lake Country InnBC Fishing Resorts |
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