Duffy Lake-June 11

by mr BFSH
(Kamloops)

It was a real lousy week for fishing (although afterwards I found out that Pass Lake was really hot on chironomids). I was still in the throws of a real tough cold virus so I decided to take an easy trip into Duffy Lake again... this time, in the morning.

I was on the water just after 8am and headed to the shoals to the left (east side of the lake) of the boat launch. It was relatively nice out, the sun was shining and there were plenty of rainbows up on the marl in 3-6 ft of water. What a perfect opportunity to stalk them, just like they stalk tarpon or snook in the salt water flats of the Caribbean.

I was casting some new damsel nymphs that I had tied, got some attention but no real feeders. Of course, when the water is that shallow, the fish can see you too so you have to be wary of scaring them off. After about 10 minutes of frustration, I changed to a black&red micro-leech and started to attract attention. I finally got one to take and it ended up being a nice 18 3/4" silver bullet. Shortly after I had one more take but didn't land it and the fish soon moved off the shoal with the rising sun.

I toured around the south end of the lake and tried some deeper water wet line chironomids but there was no luck there to be found. Around noon I anchored on the shoal on the west side of the lake and started getting some regular action, landing 2 more fish... one on a chironomid and one on a damsel.

I finished off my day back over on the east shoal, landing one more fish and losing a couple more... the weather held out pretty good but the wind was a bit of a problem. Seems like the bulk of the chironomid frenzy was over and the damsel hatch was weak. Perhaps a nice sedge hatch in a couple of weeks will pick up the fishing potential.